Search results for: “”

This thread is dedicated to short videos, preferably less than five minutes (can extend up to 10 if very interesting) which would add value to UPSC preparation.

Posting is simple. Just introduce the topic of video and post the youtube link. Further discussion on the subject cam commence in the thread itself.

P.S.- Don’t post political stories, motivation videos and RSTV, LSTV long 30 minutes videos. You can create separate thread for the same.

In this section, we will deal with the sector that holds the potential to transform India – Infrastructure and Investment Sector.

Focus Area

Road Sector

The process of road construction will be accelerated and govt. has allocated Rs. 55,000 crore in the Budget for roads and highways. Govt. will approve nearly 10,000 kms of National Highways in 2016-17 and nearly 50,000 kms of State highways will also be taken up for up-gradation as National Highways.

Read more about Developments In Road Sector.

Port

Govt has started a series of measures for modernizing the ports and increasing their efficiency. Govt. is planning to develop new greenfield ports both in the eastern and western coasts of the country along with expedition of National Waterways.

Read more about Sagarmala Project.

Civil Aviation

Govt. is drawing an action plan for revival of un-served and under-served airports. There are some 160 airports and air strips which can be revived at an indicative cost of Rs. 50 crore to Rs. 100 crore each. Union govt. will partner with the States to develop some of these airports for regional connectivity.

Read more about Developments In Civil Aviation Sector.

Oil and Gas

Govt is planning to incentivise gas production from deep-water, ultra deep-water and high pressure-high temperature areas, which are presently not exploited on account of higher cost and higher risks.

Read more about Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas: Important Updates.

Power Sector

Govt. will diversify the sources of power generation for long term stability. A comprehensive plan will be prepared to augment the investment in nuclear power generation.

Read more about India’s Nuclear Dilemma at the World’s Stage and Policy Wise: India’s Power Sector and recently launched UDAY scheme.

Financing

Govt will permit mobilisation of additional finances by various institutions such as NHAI, PFC, REC, IREDA, NABARD and Inland Water Authority to the extent of Rs. 31,300 crore through raising of bonds during 2016-17.

New Initiatives

Abolition of Permit-Raj

Govt. will bring necessary amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act and open up the road transport sector in the passenger segment. An enabling eco-system will be provided for the States which will have the choice of adopting the new legal framework. Entrepreneurs will be able to operate buses on various routes, subject to certain efficiency and safety norms.

Impact: It will lead to more efficient public transport facilities, greater public convenience, new investments, creation of new jobs, growth of start-up entrepreneurs and other multiplier effects.

Reviving the Public Private Partnership

Govt. will take various measures to revive the PPP sector:

• It will introduce Public Utility (Resolution of Disputes) Bill to streamline institutional arrangements for resolution of disputes in infrastructure related construction contracts, PPP and public utility contracts
• Guidelines for renegotiation of PPP Concession Agreements will be issued without compromising transparency
• A new credit rating system for infrastructure projects will be developed, instead of relying upon a standard perception of risk which often result in mispriced loans

Read more about recently released Kelkar Committee Report.

Reforms in FDI policy

100% FDI will be allowed through FIPB route in marketing of food products produced and manufactured in India, as lot of fruits and vegetables either do not fetch the right prices or fail to reach the markets. This move will benefit farmers, give impetus to food processing industry and create vast employment opportunities.

Govt. has also proposed changes in the areas of insurance and pension, Asset Reconstruction Companies, Stock Exchanges, etc

Public Sector Enterprises

Govt. has approved a new policy for management of its investment in PSUs, including disinvestment and strategic sale. Govt. will leverage the assets of CPSEs for generation of resources for investment in new projects. The NITI Aayog will identify the CPSEs for strategic sale.

The Department of Disinvestment is being re-named as the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).

Challenge

There is a need for consolidation, starting from approval to implementation, apart from an institutional mechanism for fair pricing and competition in infrastructure policy.

Criticism

There are no big reforms or major policy turnarounds in this regard.

PS: Please click on the green hyperlinked text to read more about the concepts. Revise and revise & feel free to ask pertinent questions.

---

Published with inputs from Pushpendra | Image: Finmin

---

Catch up on the previous links to this series:

• SC in action in 2015 – NJAC and Yakub Menon
• SC in action in 2015 – Section 66 A and Compromise on Rape
• SC in action 2015- unwed mother’s guardian right & IPC 364A

#7. States cannot unilaterally grant remission

Union of India vs. Sriharan

Summary:

In a setback to seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case which includes four Sri Lankans, will remain in Vellore Central Prison in Tamil Nadu, as a five judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the Tamil Nadu government headed by J Jayalalithaa could not have unilaterally granted them remission.

Observations:

• Since the case was probed and prosecuted by CBI, a central agency, the decision should not have been taken without the “concurrence” of the Central government
• Life sentence in such cases should mean life in jail till death
• ‘REMISSION CAN BE CANCELLED’: SC upheld the 2008 Swamy Shraddananda judgment- Courts can ignore remission right of prisoner in heinous crimes like mass murder and terrorism by awarding sentences ranging from 20 to 40 years unless it is not rarest of rare offences meritting death sentence.
• Interpreting Section 435 (2) of the CrPC: the word ‘consultation’ means ‘concurrence’. This means that TN Govt should have got the prior consent of the Centre before issuing its February 19 order to remit the sentences.

Politics of remission:

Read more here: reviving the politics of remission

Recently polls have been announced in Tamil Nadu.
There is every possibility that remission action can be used as a trump card to gain votes.
So, need we not check this as it goes against Model Code of Conduct- influencing votes by populist policies?

What does Election Commission of India has to say on it?
Q- Would action be taken if any reference was made on the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to remit the life sentence of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convicts?
Ans- As and when the reference comes, the Commission will take an appropriate view to ensure that our voters are not influenced.

#8. Minimum Edu Qualification rule for Panchayat elections upheld

Rajbala vs. State of Haryana

Summary:

Two Judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India upheld the validity of Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act 8 of 2015), which introduced the minimum educational qualification for candidates to contest the panchayat elections. The Bench consisting of Justice Chelameswar and A.M.Sapre held that both the rights namely “Right to Vote” and “Right to Contest” are not fundamental Rights but only constitutional rights of the citizen.

Observations:

• Prescription of an educational qualification is not irrelevant for better administration of the PANCHAYATS
• The classification cannot be said either unreasonable or without a reasonable nexus with the object sought to be achieved
• Every person who is entitled to vote is not automatically entitled to contest for every office under the Constitution
• Constitution itself imposes limitations on the right to contest depending upon the office
• It also authorises the prescription of further disqualifications/qualification with respect to the right to contest

Trivia:

Supreme Court also upheld the clauses of the Act which disqualify persons who are in arrears of amounts to cooperative bodies and the electricity bills and also if a person has no functional toilet at his place of residence.

---

Published with inputs from Swapnil

If you haven’t read chapter one and two, read them here first, Chapter two

Data which you can quote in exam to buttress your point-

• 975 million individuals now hold an Aadhaar card – over 75% of the population and nearly 95% of the adult population
• Nearly one-third of all states have Aadhar coverage rates greater than 90%; and only in 4 states—Nagaland (48.9), Mizoram (38.0), Meghalaya (2.9) and Assam (2.4)—is penetration less than 50%
• Basic savings account penetration in most states is still relatively low – 46% on average and above 75% in only 2 states (Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh).
• only 27% of villages have a bank within 5 km
• The Kenyan BC:population ratio is 1:172. By contrast, India’s average is 1:6630, less than 3% of the Kenyan level
• spatial density of BC’s in India is 17% the Kenyan level
• Mobile penetration-Only in Bihar (54%) and Assam (56%) is penetration lower than 60%
• there are approximately 1.4 million agents or service posts to serve the approximately 1010 million mobile customers in India, a ratio of about 1:720

This contrast of bank account penetration and accessibility v/s mobile penetration suggests that-

• India should take advantage of its deep mobile penetration and agent networks by making greater use of mobile payments technology. Govt response- licensing of payment banks
• Mobiles can not only transfer money quickly and securely, but also improve the quality and convenience of service delivery
• For example, they can inform beneficiaries that food supplies have arrived at the ration shop or fertilizer at the local retail outlet

Let’s come to the main issue of Direct Benefit Transfer using JAM-

Suppose the govt wanted to transfer 1000$ to every Indian tomorrow. It would require-

1. Ability to identify beneficiaries (Authentication / identification or first mile)
2. Ability to transfer money to beneficiaries (bank account )
3. Ability to withdraw money from bank accounts (accessibility to bank branches / last mile)

---

First mile/ identification issues-

• Failure on identification front leads to leakage – benefits intended for the poor flow to rich and “ghost” households, resulting in fiscal loss
• It was due to administrative and political discretion involved in granting identity proofs like BPL cards, driving licenses and voter IDs (not giving BPL card to poor etc)
• Aadhaar uses technology to replace human discretion and can better help in identification

3 Broad issues-

1. Targeting –  targeted subsidies are harder to JAM than universal programs, as they require government to have detailed information about beneficiaries.  For instance-  Subsidies targeted at the poor (like food and kerosene) require government to know people’s wealth while a universal subsidy like LPG requires no such information.
2. Beneficiary databases: to identify beneficiaries, the government needs a database of eligible individuals in digital form to be seeded with Aadhaar. Socioeconomic caste census (SECC) data needs to be continuously updated to serve as a baseline in sectors where data does not exist.
3. Eligibility: household-individual connection, while Aadhaar is an individual identifier, some schemes such as PDS ration are implemented at household level and spending priorities of male and female beneficiaries are often different.

2. Middle mile- administrative challenge of coordinating government actors and the political economy challenge of sharing rents with supply chain interest groups.

1. Within-government coordination: among various ministries, departments, state govt., departments etc.
2. Supply chain interest groups: distributors need incentives before they invest in JAM infrastructure and if their interests are threatened, they would obstruct the spread of JAM.

3. Last mile/ Transfer and Access issues (Bank account and access)- failure here  risks excluding genuine beneficiaries, especially the poor.

1. Beneficiary financial inclusion: Bank accounts and accessibility to bank branches.

In rural areas physical connectivity to the banking system remains limited, and BCs, banking correspondents and mobile money providers have not yet solved this last-mile problem

2. Beneficiary vulnerability: amount of subsidy consumed by poor

• exclusion error risks increase when the beneficiary population is poorer
• For instance, the poorest 30% of households consume only 3% subsidized LPG consumption, but 49% of subsidized kerosene i.e. if excluded from LPG subsidy not much effect on poor but exclusion from kerosene subsidy will hurt them the most

Where next to spread JAM?

Policymakers should decide where to apply JAM based on two considerations of-

1. Amount of leakages- subsidies with higher leakages will have larger returns from introducing JAM
2. Control of the central government-control of central government will reduce administrative challenges of co-ordination and political challenges of opposition by interest groups (middle mile challenge)

Fertilizer subsidies (huge leakages) and within-government transfers (govt control) are two most promising areas for introduction of the JAM

JAM Preparedness Index:

• Aadhaar penetration, basic bank account penetration and Banking Correspondents (BC) density are used as indicators for the indices
• Preparation across states is varied with urban preparation being better than rural one
• In urban areas, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh show preparedness scores of about 70% while Bihar and Maharashtra, have scores of only about 25%
• DBT rural preparedness has an average score of 3% and a maximum of just 5%(Haryana)

It is clear that last-mile financial inclusion is the main constraint to making JAM happen in much of rural India. Jan Dhan’s vision must truly succeed before much of India can JAM

What is this BAPU?

Biometrically Authenticated Physical Uptake

• It is an interim solution– while banking correspondent networks develop and mobile banking spreads
• Beneficiaries verify their identities through scanning their thumbprint on a POS (point of sale) machine while buying the subsidised product—say kerosene at the PDS shop just like your biometric attendance machine
• BAPU preparedness is much better (12%) than for Rural DBT preparedness (3%)

Remarkable success of LPG DBT scheme (PAHAL) 

---

 

• Use of Aadhaar has made black marketing harder (commercial establishments buying subsidiesd domestic cylinder)
• LPG leakages have reduced by about 24 per cent with limited exclusion of genuine beneficiaries

However, diversion of LPG from domestic to commercial sources continues, because of the differential tax treatment of “commercial” and “domestic” LPG (no tax on domestic unsubsidized cylinders (after 12 cylinders) v/s upto 30% tax on commercial cylinders)

Solution- apply the One Product One Price principle and equalise taxes across end-uses

Way forward on JAM

In those areas where the centre has less control, it should incentivise the states to-invest in first-mile capacity (by improving beneficiary databases),deal with middle-middle challenges (by designing incentives for supply chain interest groups to support DBT) and improve last-mile financial connectivity (by developing the BC and mobile money space). States should be incentivised by sharing fiscal savings from DBT.

• Centre can invest in last-mile financial inclusion via further improving BC networks and promoting the spread of mobile money
• Regulations governing the remuneration of BCs need to be reviewed to ensure that commission rates are sufficient to encourage BCs to remain active

What you have to read for yourself

1. All the boxes from the chapter
2. Open all the hyperlinks. Learn, understand and revise
3. Read this chapter wiping every tear from every eye from last year’s economic survey to understand conceptual framework behind DBT and also follow this story on Direct Benefit Transfer

Ask all your doubts in the comment section below or in doubts clearing forum . all your suggestions, criticism and feedback are most welcome.

---

If you like what you read, show your support to Civilsdaily and give us a hi 5 at the Android Play – Click here.

---

Catch up on the previous links to this series:

• SC in action in 2015 – NJAC and Yakub Menon
• SC in action in 2015 – Section 66 A and Compromise on Rape

#5. Unwed mother can become sole guardian of a child

ABC vs. State (NCT of Delhi)

Summary:

In a landmark judgment, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Vikramajit Sen held that an unwed mother in India can apply to become the sole guardian of a child, without giving notice to the father of the child and without disclosing his identity.

The Court also directed that if a single parent/unwed mother applies for the issuance of a Birth Certificate for a child born from her womb, the Authorities concerned may only require her to furnish an affidavit to this effect, and must thereupon issue the Birth Certificate, unless there is a Court direction to the contrary.

Background:

• The child was born in 2010, and the woman petitioner raised him without any assistance from or involvement of his putative father
• She desired to make her son her nominee in all her savings and other insurance policies
• But was informed that she must either declare the name of the father or get a guardianship/adoption certificate from the Court
• She then filed an application under Section 7 of the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 (the Act) before the Guardian Court for declaring her the sole guardian of her son
• Section 11 of the Act requires a notice to be sent to the parents of the child before a guardian is appointed
• However, both the Courts (the guardian court and Delhi High court) held that she needed to disclose the father’s name to get his consent while filing a guardianship petition
• Then she filed a petition in SC against ruling of the trial court and the Delhi High Court

SC observations:

• The predominant thought in these jurisdictions, as is in India, is to bestow guardianship and related rights to the mother of a child born outside of wedlock
• The mother need not disclose the identity of the father and include him as a party to the guardianship petition in certain cases
• The ruling relied on the best interest of the child, which requires that the procedural requirement should be done away with

---

#6. Section 364A IPC awarding death penalty not unconstitutional

Vikram Singh vs. Union of India

Summary:

The Supreme Court of India dismissed an appeal by a death row convict, and held that Section 364A awarding death penalty as a possible punishment, for kidnapping any person threatening to cause death in order to compel Government or any other person, to pay ransom, is not unconstitutional.

Three Judge Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur, R.K. Agrawal and Adarsh Kumar Goel examined the background of the Section 364A and held that it was enacted for the safety and security of the citizens and the unity, sovereignty and integrity of the country.

About Section 364A:

• Introduced: 1993
• Awards: death penalty or life imprisonment
• For: kidnapping or abducting any person and threatening to cause death or hurt to such person
• Protects: the Government, any foreign State or international inter-governmental organisation or any other person

Observations:

• Private persons are also covered:
  Section 364A is wide enough to cover even cases where the demand for ransom is made not as a part of any terrorist act but also for monetary gain from a private individual.
• 364A deals with ordinary crimes too:
  The counsel for petitioner had argued- since the Kidnapping/abduction of a person for ransom is already covered by other provisions of IPC hence Section 364A was added only to deal with terrorist related ransom situations and not ordinary crimes.
  However, the SC held that ingredients of 364A are unique, and cannot be found in other provisions of IPC even in the provisions dealing with extortion.
• Rule of Ejusdem generis does not apply:
  The meaning of the term ‘person’ can not be restricted to the ‘government’ or ‘foreign State’ or ‘international inter-governmental organisations’ only.
• Section 364A not disproportionate:
  Citing various Indian and foreign decisions, the court laid down the principles governing proportionality of punishments
  ○ Punishments must be proportionate to the nature and gravity of the offences for which the same are prescribed
  ○ Prescribing punishments is the function of the legislature and not the Courts’.
  ○ The legislature is presumed to be supremely wise and aware of the needs of the people and the measures to meet those needs
  ○ Courts show deference to the legislative will and wisdom and are slow in upsetting the enacted provisions dealing with the quantum of punishment prescribed for different offences
  ○ Courts, however, have the jurisdiction to interfere when the punishment prescribed is so outrageously disproportionate or so inhuman or brutal which cannot be accepted by any standard of decency
  ○ Absence of objective standards for determining the legality of the prescribed sentence makes the job of the Court reviewing the punishment difficult
  ○ Courts cannot interfere with the prescribed punishment only because the punishment is “perceived to be” excessive

What is Ejusdem Generis?

• A Latin term which means “of the same kind“
• It is used to interpret loosely written statutes
• Where a law lists specific classes of persons or things and then refers to them in general then the general statements only apply to the same kind of persons or things specifically listed

---

 

Published with inputs from Swapnil