Not always, but many a times I encounter a wrong data in the articles and the daily current affairs. For example in todays news the bullet train case the Japan has given a soft loan of ₹88000 crore with the interest rate of 0.1% per annum but you people have written some wrong data. Things like these force us to reverify all the data we read in CD. Please rectify the issues. Thanks again for the hard work that you guys are doing.

Note4Students

Escalated tension in the various parts world necessitated an evacuation plan. Considering the size of Indian diaspora, tentative plans would not be successful in every instance. So this topic is important for mains examination.

Introduction

• India has extensive experience conducting evacuation operations, but given the rising economic contributions and political influence of Indian citizens abroad and the increasing complexity of these operations, the incentives to ensure the success of future ones are now even greater.
• As India’s diaspora continues to grow, so will the challenges New Delhi faces challenges in protecting this diverse and geographically dispersed population. To overcome these issues, the Indian government will have to institutionalize best practices, bolster its diplomatic and military capabilities, and improve coordination.

Fig: Indian diaspora

Analysis

Why do we need an evacuation policy?

1. India has conducted more than thirty evacuation operations across Africa, Asia, and Europe, including its largest-ever civilian airlift of 110,000 people from the Persian Gulf in 1990.
2. With one of the world’s youngest populations, India’s population is expected to peak at 1.7 billion in 2060, and many are likely to seek a new passport and consular support while traveling, working, or studying abroad.29 Keeping track of and monitoring this growing mobile population will pose a significant challenge to the Indian government.
3. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), an estimated 11 million Indian citizens now permanently reside abroad, and almost 16 million people of Indian origin hold other citizenships.1 The annual average rate of growth of India’s diaspora population was 4.5 percent between 2000 and 2015.2 Personal remittances are now twenty-nine times what they were in 1990, playing a vital role in the country’s economic growth and development policies.
4. Given the trend of increased migration and travel from India, it will become increasingly important for the country’s government to institutionalize its best practices and learn from the experiences of other countries.
5. According to the United Nations (UN), the total number of international migrants increased between 1990 and 2015 from 154 million to 244 million—now constituting 3.3 percent of the world’s population.
6. Evacuating citizens from abroad is an extremely complex mission in which distance, logistics, security, and coordination pose numerous obstacles. Such operations can assume various forms, and the instruments employed depend on myriad factors, such as geographic location, the nature of the crisis environment, or the size of the population to be extricated.
7. Several states have therefore developed extensive expertise and capabilities to evacuate their citizens and, most importantly, they have established standard operating procedures for such contingencies. For example, Brazil’s National Defence Policy now enshrines the protection of its 3 million citizens living abroad as a main objective.
8. However, given the lack of any formal doctrine or emergency plan, the success of India’s missions has mostly been due to the individual sacrifices of officials from its diplomatic corps, flagship carrier, and armed forces.
9. As more than 11 million Indians now reside abroad, and more than 20 million travel overseas each year, the government will no longer be able to rely on heroic, ad hoc efforts and quick-fix solutions.
10. Lingering and emerging challenges, including a lack of standard operating procedures and inadequate coordination, will only intensify as evacuation operations become larger in scope and public scrutiny increases

Steps To Be Taken By The Government

1. The Indian government should employ significant diplomatic and military resources to assess its evacuation operations and institutionalize best practices;
2. Develop standard operating procedures, including emergency doctrines;
3. Train and prepare its diplomatic cadre to operate in hostile environments, and increase coordination with other governments;
4. Assign a greater role to the armed forces, strengthening their capacity to plan and deploy in tandem with civilian authorities;
5. Establish a permanent coordinating mechanism that facilitates communication and joint operations across national, regional, and international levels and bureaucratic and military levels;
6. Designate a civilian air reserve fleet for evacuation operations to reduce the burden on Air India, whose staff also requires specific training;
7. Explore new communication technologies to develop consular platforms to identify, monitor, and contact citizens’ abroad, offering them real-time updates on evacuation procedures.
8. Expand efforts to manage public pressure through diplomacy and a communication strategy that appropriately prioritizes Indian citizens over people of Indian origin.

Conclusion

1. To secure their diaspora as a prized asset, home states are also more inclined to protect migrants in extraordinary times of crisis.
2. As a vulnerable and dislocated population, migrants are particularly exposed to various risks abroad, including natural disasters, political unrest, and violent conflict in their host country or region.
3. They are often specifically targeted by populist and extremist movements or forced to depart after sudden changes in immigration laws. In such circumstances, governments must act swiftly and decisively to protect the lives and assets of their citizens, which may require evacuating them safely back home.

Questions

Q1. A proper evacuation plan for overseas workers would serve our national interests. Analyse

Note4Students

The Union Cabinet has approved the new wage code bill. The Code on Wages, 2017 was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Labour and it is recently cleared by Cabinet. The Code would ensure universal minimum wage for all industries and workers. It will also cover those workers who are getting monthly pay of higher than Rs 18,000. Labour reforms is one of the long pending decision and the minimum wage is the basic solution for poverty alleviation, if not Universal Basic Income.

Introduction

The Wage code Bill seeks to consolidate laws relating to wages by replacing: (i) the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, (ii) the Minimum Wages Act, 1949, (iii) the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and (iv) the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 and will ensure uniformity of minimum wage across geographical regions and all sectors. If passed it is expected to benefit over 4 crore employees across the country. At present, every state decides the minimum wage for different industries and labour classifications .The bill seeks to empower the Centre to set a minimum wage across all sectors in the country and the states will have to maintain that.

Indian labour market has a sharp divide between organised and unorganised sector.The small proportion of organised labour enjoys an advantage with stringent laws and rules and regulations enabling them to fight for their rights. The major chunk however consists of unorganised labour with almost no job or social security. With India poised to have the largest workforce in the world by 2025 it is imperative that labour issues are given the attention and the importance that they deserve.

According to ILO, Social and economic outlook trends 2016 ‘Poor quality  job remains a pressing issue worldwide’ and 12 per cent of workforce in developed countries and 42 per cent in developing countries are in informal employment.

Key features of the Legislation

• 1. The bill defines Wages as it includes salary, allowance, or any other component expressed in monetary terms.  This will not include bonus payable to employees or any travelling allowance, among other.

Minimum Wage

• 1. National minimum wage:  The central government may notify a national minimum wage for the country.  It may fix different national minimum wage for different states or geographical areas.
  2. Fixing the minimum wage: The Code requires employers to pay at least the minimum wages to employees as specified by central or state government as National minimum wage. The Code specifies that the central or state governments will review or revise the minimum wage every five years.
  3. Working hours: The central or state governments will fix the number of hours that will constitute a working day. Further a day of rest for employees every week.  The amount of overtime will be at least twice the normal wage of the employee.

Payment of Wages

• 1. Wages will be paid in (i) coins, (ii) currency notes, (iii) by cheque, or (iv) through digital or electronic mode.  The wage period will be fixed by the employer as either: (i) daily, (ii) weekly, (iii) fortnightly, or (iv) monthly.
  2. Deductions:  Under the Code, an employee’s wages may be deducted on certain grounds including: (i) fines, (ii) absence from duty, (iii) accommodation given by the employer, or (iv) recovery of advances given to the employee, among others.  These deductions should not exceed 50% of the employee’s total wage.

Payment of Bonus

• 1. Determination of bonus:  The employer will pay each employee an annual bonus of at least: (i) 8.33% of his wages, or (ii) Rs 100, whichever is higher. In addition, the employer will distribute a part of the gross profits amongst the employees in proportion to the wages earned by employees.
  2. Maximum bonus:  An employee can receive a maximum bonus of 20% of his wages.

Advisory Board:

1. The central and state governments will constitute their respective advisory boards.  These boards will have representation from: (i) employees, (ii) employers, and (iii) independent persons. 
2. Further, one-third of the total members will be women. 
3. The boards will advise the respective governments on aspects including: (i) fixation of minimum wages, and (ii) increasing employment opportunities for women.

Offences:

 The Code specifies penalties for offences committed by an employer, such as

(i) paying less than the due wages, or

(ii) for contravening any provision of the Code.  Penalties vary depending on the nature of offence, with the maximum penalty being imprisonment for three months along with a fine of up to one lakh rupees.

Merits of the Legislation

1. Will ensure decent  Minimum wage for all which will result into increase in disposable incomes in turn help in eradicating Poverty, hunger to achieve SDGs.
2. Uniformity in coverage. At present, the minimum wages fixed by the Centre and states are applicable to workers getting up to Rs 18,000 pay monthly and does not cover workers getting a monthly wage of more than Rs 18,000. If the bill is approved in the Parliament, workers getting a monthly pay of higher than Rs 18,000 would also be legally entitled to a minimum wage.
3. Multiplicity of definitions will be removed through this change.
4. The wage conditions of unskilled workers will improve.
5. This bill is expected to treat contract labour on par with regular employee to have dignified life.
6. It Will ensure humane working conditions through minimum working hours,overtime etc. and  prevent exploitation of labour.
7. Formalisation of economy.
8. Also help in reduce regionalism by reducing wage disparity across different regions.

Demerits of the Legislation

1. The Economic survey highlights 78% of indian firms employ under 50 worker and just 10% employ more than 500 comparable of china are 15 and 20% respectively. Further strengthening  of labour laws will worsen the situation.
2. According to Noble prize winner economist George Stigler, the minimum wages doesn’t satisfies original intentions i.e. elimination of poverty and it tends to reduce employment and  family income.
3. Labour comes under concurrent list and different states having different criteria in deciding minimum wages so there is possibility some states may raise concern.
4. Will facilitate ease of doing business but affect competitiveness of trade and industry, especially states capacity to attract FDI.
5. Economic theory and its evidences suggest that any price control leads to creation and expansion of black market. Similarly in this case companies will prefer contractual workers or keep majority of workforce in informal sector.
6.  Negative impact on hiring in tier II and tier III markets.
7. Implementation would be difficult and it may lead to inspector raj.

Way Forward/Conclusion

• 1. Bringing four legislations into one is a major step towards labour reforms.
  2. Looking at the larger picture, the new wage code is one part of the reforms needed to modernize the archaic labour laws in India, and hence a step in the right direction. But to make the new code into reality Government will have to,
• Generate political consensus; 
• Work on creating an infrastructure to ensure implementation; and 
•  Talk to state governments about the nuances of the new wage structure. It is a long process. Until then, the four crore employees will have to keep their fingers crosses.

 

Model Questions

Q.) What is the significance of the proposed Wage code in India? Explain the challenges that competitiveness in trade and industry will face?

Q.)List out recent labour reforms? How they will have impact on meeting Global standards and achieving economic growth?

Sources:

PRS India Website

Big Picture Discussion

The Hindu News, The Mint , Financial Express

Ministry of Labour

Yojana on Labour reforms

Note4Student:

After string of victories of BJP in all major elections The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, headed  by senior congress leader Anand Sharma called for debate on reforms in adoption of First past the post system and also suggested a dual system where separate votes for a candidate and a party could be considered. India being one of the world’s largest democracy any change or debate on election methods process is very important from our exam point of view.

Introduction

India adopted Parliamentary form of government with representative democracy in which legislatures are elected by First Past The Post system (FPTP) type of election.

Under this FPTP system in India:

Entire country divided in to constituencies now 543.

Each constituency elects one candidate

Candidate who gets highest number of votes declared elected than others. Even if votes share less than 50%.(Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) massive election victory is the claim that they got 31.84% of vote share and  won 282 seats that, therefore, 69% of those who voted did not vote in favour of the winning party)

This system is also known as Single Member Plurality or Plurality Voting system in which winner takes it all. And all other votes are disregarded.

Analysis

Positives of having FPTP

1. Firstly it is praised for simplicity and easy to understand. No specialised knowledge of elections and politics required. During parliamentary debates members of constituency assembly representing Scheduled Caste and General Hindus rejected the system of proportional representation bcz of its complexity and difficult to understand  for illiterate population.
2. It retains link between the constituency, Member of Parliament (MP) and voter.
3. Fosters representation and ‘Geographical Accountability’.
4. It allows voters to choose between persons rather than just between parties or balances both party and candidate. So voter asses performance of individual candidate and party.
5. Gives chance to popular candidate to get elected even without party backing.
6. Cost effective.
7. Ensures stable government in such a diverse country.

Negatives aspects of FPTP

1. It may exclude minority parties from representation in Parliament or Councils if they don’t have concentration areas where their candidates can win. Lesser women MPs, MLAs as they don’t have area of concentration.
2. It will encourage development of ethnic parties i.e. political parties base their plans, policies in favour of particular clan, religion, region, etc.
3. Since there is delimitation of boundaries, cases of gerrymandering can occur.
4. FPTP system results in Two Party system. E.g. BJP and Congress.
5. It leaves a large number of wasted votes which do not go towards the election of any candidate.

Alternative to FPTP

Proportional Representation

Seats are allotted to the political parties according to their vote share. Here voter vote for party not for candidates.

Advantages of PR system

1. Faithfully translate votes cast into seats won.
2. Encourage or require the formation of political parties.
3. Give rise to very few wasted votes, depending on the threshold.
4. Facilitate minority parties’ access to representation depending on the or the district magnitude.
5. Encourage parties to campaign beyond the districts.
6. Restrict the growth of ‘regional fiefdoms’.
7. Make power-sharing between parties and interest groups more visible.

Disadvantages OF PR System

1. Gives rise to coalition governments and a fragmented party system i.e. Less stable government.
2. The inability of the voter to enforce accountability by throwing a party out of power or a particular candidate out of office.
3. Difficulties either for voters to understand or for the electoral administration to implement depending on voter’s education and training of poll workers.

Way forward

1. On the lines of European countries Dual system of election model need to be studied in which voters cast vote both  to Political party and candidate.
2. recommendations of the Law Commission’s 170th and 255th report should be implemented:
3. A hybrid of both first-past-the-post and proportional representation should be tried.
4. Both the reports have suggested that 25% or 136 more seats should be added to the present Lok Sabha and be filled by Proportional Representation.
5. Need to study PR system on pilot basis.

Conclusion

The election process and system should safeguard the following principles: more representation, transparency, verifiability, fairness, eligibility to vote, free, secret and universal suffrage, and accessibility.

No electoral system is perfect. Each one favours one or more of the objectives of elections – but not all of them. Broadly speaking, PR systems favour accuracy of representation; While FPTP favours stability. Majority systems tend to stress strong and stable government. Different electoral systems produce different results. There is no one objectively “best” system. Need to debate, discuss, to evolve more suitable election system.

Q1. What is First past the post system? How it is different form Proportional representation? Is it time for India to shift from FPTP system to PR system? Critically analyse.

Q2. Electoral system failed to achieve India as a more representative democracy? Critically analyse this statement and give your views with recent examples.

Note4Students

Enemy property amendment bill caused large uproar in the parliament. Opposition called it as a anti minority bill. It also budded as undermining fundamental right guaranteed under article 14. So it is important to understand the details of enemy property act.

Introduction

Parliament passed The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, incorporating comprehensive amendments to the law relating to confiscation of enemy property in India.

What is Enemy Property Act?

1. When wars broke out between India and China in 1962, and India and Pakistan in 1965 and 1971, the central government took over properties of citizens of China and Pakistan in India under the Defence of India Acts.
2. These Acts defined an ‘enemy’ as a country that committed an act of aggression against India, and its citizens. The properties of enemies in India were classified as enemy property. The properties included land, buildings, shares held in companies, gold and jewellery of the citizens of enemy countries. The responsibility of the administration of enemy properties was handed over to the Custodian of Enemy Property, an office under the central government.
3. The Defence of India Acts were temporary laws that ceased to operate after the wars ended. To administer the enemy property seized during the wars, the government enacted the Enemy Property Act in 1968.
4. This law laid down the powers of the Custodian of Enemy Property for management and preservation of the enemy properties.
5. The Enemy Property Act gave enemy citizens certain rights with respect to their properties vested in the Custodian. But the ambiguity in their rights and the powers of the Custodian to administer these properties resulted in disputes being raised before the courts. Some of these disputes related to Indian citizens challenging whether they could inherit enemy properties belonging to their ancestors who were nationals of enemy countries.

Recent Developments:

1. In 2010, the government issued an Ordinance to expand the powers of the Custodian regarding enemy property. It sought to permanently vest enemy property in the Custodian even in case of the enemy’s death or a change in his nationality. However, the Ordinance lapsed.
2. The issue of enemy property attracted legislative interest again in 2016 when five more Ordinances were issued on the subject. These Ordinances went a step further and vested ownership rights over enemy property in the Custodian. This effectively negated the Supreme Court decision of 2005, and made the central government the owner of enemy property.

ANALYSIS

IMPORTANANT SECTIONS OF BILL

1. The definition of “enemy” and “enemy subject” shall include the legal heir and successor of an enemy, whether a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy, and also include the succeeding firm of an enemy firm in the definition of “enemy firm” irrespective of the nationality of its members or partners.
2. The enemy property shall continue to vest in the Custodian even if the enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm ceases to be an enemy due to death, extinction, winding up of business or change of nationality or that the legal heir or successor is a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy.
3. The enemy property shall continue to vest in the Custodian with all rights, title and interest in the property, and the Custodian shall preserve the same until it is disposed of by the Custodian, with the prior approval of the Central Government, in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
4. The law of succession or any custom or usage governing succession shall not apply in relation to enemy property.
5. No enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm shall have any right, and shall never be deemed to have any right to transfer any property vested in the Custodian, and any transfer of such property shall be void.
6. The amendments through the Ordinance include that once an enemy property is vested in the Custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due to reasons such as death etc;
7. There cannot be transfer of any property vested in the Custodian by an enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm and that the Custodian shall preserve the enemy property till it is disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
8. The Custodian, with prior approval of the Central Government, may dispose of enemy properties vested in him in accordance with the provisions of the Act, and for this purpose, the Government may issue such directions to the Custodian that shall be binding upon him.
9. The Central Government may transfer property vested in the Custodian which was not actually enemy property to the person who was aggrieved by the vesting order issued by the Custodian.
10. No civil court or other authority shall entertain any suit or proceeding in respect of any enemy property or any action taken by the Government or the Custodian.

Issues Involved

1. The new law creates a situation where an Indian citizen who has legally bought and developed an enemy property after 1968, will be divested of his rights in the property.
2. This situation could be challenged in court as a violation of Article 14 , which guarantees the right to equality and protects people from arbitrary actions of the government.
3. Further, following the passage of the Bill, judicial recourse on enemy property disputes will only be available before High Courts and the Supreme Court, limiting the options available to people whose property rights have been affected.
4. The thrust of the amendments is to guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people who migrated to Pakistan and China after the wars.
5. The amendments deny legal heirs any right over enemy property. The main aim is to negate the effect of a court judgment in this regard. The Act gives the sole right of disposal of enemy property to the Custodian.
6. Once an enemy property is vested in the Custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due to reasons such as death etc.,
7. Law of succession does not apply to enemy property, that there cannot be transfer of any property vested in the Custodian by an enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm, and the Custodian shall preserve the enemy property till it is disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

Conclusion

The amendments are aimed at plugging the loopholes in the Act to ensure that the enemy properties that have been vested in the Custodian remain so and do not revert to the enemy subject or firm.

Q.What are the prime concerns regarding enemy property act?

Note4Students:

The idea of holding simultaneous elections for both Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha has been recommended by many experts. This topic is important for mains as it is in news from quite some time.

Introduction

Some time back, honourable PM had recommended holding of simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections all over the country which has reignited the age old debate .In this article we will highlight the pros and cons of holding elections simultaneously.

Pros of holding elections simultaneously

Allow government to focus on development as frequent elections leads to Governance Problem

1. Whenever elections are announced the normal work comes to a standstill to a considerable extent due to MCC. This means that the government cannot announce any new schemes, make any new appointments, and the district administration machinery gets totally focused on elections. Holding simultaneous elections will solve this problem as MCC will not be implemented at separate time for Lok sabha and Vidhan sabha.

Reduce expenditure on polls

1. Holding elections simultaneously is a costly affair since in last few decades. Holding elections together reduces expenditure made by political parties on election campaigns because of frequent elections.

Allows leaders not to be always engaged in campaigning

1. Holding elections at one time will allow the political leaders to focus more on governance rather than on election campaigning.

Increase in voting percentage:

1. This would lead to improvement in voting percentage as migrant workers would have to move back to home town only once for polling their vote.

Reduce money spent on manpower deployment:

1. When elections are held separately, crucial manpower has to be deployed for prolonged periods on election duty. This idea will save the large amount of money spent on manpower deployment.
2. Overall, conducting the election once will bring down the overall cost of conducting election in terms of distributing voter slips, bringing the staff, calling the Central personnel, delay in schemes deemed as popular, etc.

Cons of holding elections together

1. Frequent elections are beneficial in number of ways as politicians, who tend to forget voters after the elections for five years have to return to them. This enhances accountability, elections give a boost to the economy at the grassroots level, creating work opportunities for lakhs of people. Holding elections at one time will close these opportunities.
2. If elections are held simultaneously, this would lead to mixing of national and local issues to distort priorities. In voters’ minds, local issues might overtake wider state and national issues or vice versa.
3. Simultaneous conduct of elections would require large-scale purchase of Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. The machines would also need to be replaced every 15 years which would again entail expenditure. Further, storing these machines would increase the warehousing cost.
4. There are some Practical problems in implementing the scheme for example Imagine a scenario when the Lok Sabha gets dissolved too early (in 13 days, as actually happened in 1998), and for the sake of simultaneity all state assemblies with full or thin majority are also dissolved. And then, in the resultant Lok Sabha elections, the same party comes to power. This would be unfair to states.
5. The idea of simultaneous elections clearly goes against the constitutional structure of the Indian Parliamentary system. For eg Dissolution of state legislature before completion of 5-year term will break the cycle again thereby rendering the whole exercise futile.
6. Administrative hassles in managing all elections at the same time can leads to incidents of poll rigging and this will put heavy burden on the government in the fiscal year during which elections are conducted.

Way Forward

Holding elections simultaneously is marked by several practical problems which limits its feasibility. However even status quo does not solve the problems mentioned above. We need to find middle ground. Following steps can be taken

1. It’s possible to reduce the duration of the election process by half — by conducting the elections in one day. That requires making available to the EC five times the Central armed police force that is currently provided. Raising a few battalions of various paramilitary forces will also give relief to the extremely stretched and stressed forces, provide employment and contribute to better enforcement in troubled areas.
2. The other possible and desirable action is to cut the role of money power in elections. It requires two things: Putting a cap on political party expenditure and state-funding of political parties (not elections), with a simultaneous ban on all private, especially corporate, funds.
3. States can be divided into two groups “ for eg. one group of states going to the polls in November 2018 and another group in June 2021. This way, there will be just two rounds of elections in the country in a five-year period. In order to achieve this, the tenure of the existing state assemblies will have to be curtailed or extended by some months.

Conclusion

The similar voting at both and center and states is a concern in case of holding elections simultaneously. Many votes do not discern the difference due to lack of education, apathy, etc. So understanding individual manifestos of the parties at the Center and state requires the different election.

Questions:

(Q) It is commented that conducting elections for all 3 tiers of Government simultaneously would improve the Governance in the country. Comment. Also highlight the Practical difficulties in holding simultaneous elections.

(Q) Discuss the merits and demerits of conducting simultaneous elections for State Assemblies and Parliament.

Sources

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/simultaneous-elections-lok-sabha-narendra-modi-save-money-stable-government-2928409/

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/simultaneous-elections/article18348658.ece

https://thewire.in/131341/parliament-state-assembly-simultaneous-elections-democracy/

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/analysing-impact-of-simultaneous-polls/article9522924.ece

Context

1. It has been debated from long that the no-detention policy should be scrapped as it has negatively impacted quality of basic education in the country. Recently, Union Cabinet has approved the scrapping of the no-detention policy in schools till Class VIII.
2. Various states, including Delhi, have raised serious objections against the no-detention policy, citing it as a reason of high failure and drop-outs in classes 9 and 10.

What does it mean?

1. It means that an enabling provision will be made in the Right to Education Act which will allow states to detain students in class 5 and class 8 if they fail in the year-end exam.

What is no detention policy?

1. As per the No Detention Policy, no student can be failed or expelled from school till the completion of elementary education covering classes 1 to 8. All the students up till Class VIII will automatically be promoted to next class.

Analysis

Reasons why ‘no detention policy’ should be scrapped:

1. Negative impact on standard of education: It has led to increased failure rate in classes 9th and 10^th. Hence, if the ‘no detention policy’ continues, it will leave a negative impact on the standard of education and force the children to face more harsh future.

2. This policy has led to students developing a casual attitude, with there being no risk of failing. The teachers have also become lethargic & started showing lesser interest towards academics.

3. With the policy in place, the Education Department does not take steps to revamp itself and the teachers do not take the pain to ensure a good education to the children.

4. Dark future of students: Students will face problem in their coming life because of no good education in the schools as their learning level would be very low.

5. Zero academic outcome: If no merit is checked while giving promotion to another class, the children will never learn the importance of studying and acquiring knowledge. It will lead to poor academic outcome in classes.

Reasons why no detention policy should be continued

1. Reducing dropouts from the schools due to peer pressure was the main reason the Right to Education Act included the no-detention provision, if it is reversed many students would stop going to schools when they fail due to pressure from peers and family.
2. Section 29 (2) (h) of the RTE Act makes comprehensive and continuous evaluation (CCE) mandatory, wherein schools are expected to use test results to improve teaching and learning of the child and visualise evaluation as a diagnostic tool to improve learning. So scrapping the policy is not a solution, infact it should be modified and corrected.
3. If a student is made to repeat a grade, there’s a strong chance he or she will discontinue learning.
4. There can be modification such as each school should conduct exams to ascertain which student is weak in what subject rather than scrapping the whole policy.

Way forward

1. The phenomenon of poor learning outcomes is the product of many factors which influence learning, and should not be conveniently pinned to the door of the no-detention policy. The steps that can be taken to improve learning outcomes can be:
2. measuring learning level outcomes of all children on a regular basis,
3. catalysing a “performance-driven culture” and rewarding high performers at every level,
4. changing stakeholders’ mindset and preparing them for new provisions, in which parents are made responsible or accountable for full attendance of their children.
5. The policy should be implemented in a phased manner and a scale-up to all classes should be undertaken only after the critical infrastructural, teacher strength and teachers’ skill-set requirements are fully met.

Conclusion

Rather than addressing the core issues that affect quality of education in the country, the entire focus seems to be shifting to bring back the pass/fail model. It is high time steps are taken to remove the other flaws that exist.

Hence, the policy should either be renovated with adequate changes to neutralize the ill effects or replaced with a new policy that would take a balanced approach.

Source

https://scroll.in/latest/845915/cabinet-approves-scrapping-of-no-detention-policy-in-schools

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/right-to-education-act-no-detention-policy-ndp-school-students-4785429/

http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/simply-put-the-no-fail-policy-may-have-failed-what-now/

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/no-detention-policy-works/article3429830.ece

Note4Students:

India is facing a lot of inter-state water disputes. Most of the tribunals that have been set up have failed to arrive at a solution. Will this new mechanism solve the problem? This is important from context of GS-2.

Context

In view of the ongoing water disputes in the country, Union Cabinet has proposed to have a permanent tribunal that will subsume existing tribunals and is expected to provide for speedier adjudication.

Constitutional provisions related to water

1. Water is a State subject as per entry 17 of State List and thus states are empowered to enact legislation on water.
2. Entry 17 of State List deals with water i.e. water supply, irrigation, canal, drainage, embankments, water storage and water power.
3. Entry 56 of Union List gives power to the Union Government for the regulation and development of interstate rivers and river valleys to the extent declared by Parliament to be expedient in the public interest.

Constitutional provision related to water disputes

1. In the case of disputes relating to waters, Article 262 provides:
2. Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution or control of the waters of, or in, any inter-State river or river valley.
3. Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, Parliament may, by law provide that neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall exercise jurisdiction in respect of any such dispute or complaint.
4. At present, the resolution of water dispute is governed by the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956. According to its provisions, a state government can approach the Centre to refer the dispute to a tribunal, whose decision is considered final.

What are the problems in present set-up?

1. With increasing demand for water, inter-state river water disputes are on the rise.
2. Under the present Act, a separate Tribunal has to be established for each dispute and there is no time limit for adjudication or publication of reports.
3. Only three of the eight tribunals have actually given awards accepted by the states. Tribunals like those on the Cauvery and Ravi Beas have been in existence for over 26 and 30 years respectively without any award.

Features of new structure

1. A single, permanent tribunal subsuming all the existing tribunals is proposed to be established to resolve grievances of states with speed and efficiency.
2. The proposed tribunal is expected to deliver its verdict within a span of three years.
3. In addition, the proposed tribunal is expected to have more teeth as its verdict will get automatically notified. Until now, the verdicts of the tribunals were notified by the government. This practice was causing delays in the implementation of the orders of the tribunals.
4. Along with the tribunal, the amendment has also proposed to set up Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) to handle disputes prior to the tribunal.
5. It calls for the transparent data collection system at the national level for each river basin and a single agency to maintain data bank and information system.

Present Inter-State river water disputes under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act (ISRWD), 1956

Sources

https://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.livemint.com%2Fr%2FLiveMint%2FPeriod2%2F2016%2F09%2F08%2FPhotos%2FProcessed%2Fweb_War_of_Water.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.livemint.com%2FPolitics%2FSD0UuNs3smZFvOHO4RHupN%2FCauvery-faceoff-puts-spotlight-on-water-wars.html&docid=i0C27wVpQkp7jM&tbnid=XPDAy0Qbv-NmwM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwj19s-GudPVAhVBOY8KHddfD18QMwgnKAEwAQ..i&w=932&h=473&bih=611&biw=1343&q=Setting%20up%20of%20common%20water%20disputes%20settlement%20tribunal%20livemint&ved=0ahUKEwj19s-GudPVAhVBOY8KHddfD18QMwgnKAEwAQ&iact=mrc&uact=8

Analysis of the new setup

Benefits

1. A permanent tribunal to adjudicate river water disputes between States will undoubtedly be a vast improvement over the present system of setting up ad hoc tribunals as it is expected to provide for speedier adjudication.
2. An expert agency to collect data on rainfall, irrigation and surface water flows acquires importance and looks like an ideal mechanism to apportion water because party-States have a tendency to fiercely question data provided by the other side.
3. The Dispute Resolution Committee, an expert body that will seek to resolve inter-State differences before a tribunal is approached will discourage for needless litigation.
4. Water disputes are highly politicised and a strong public opinion forms around these issues. A single tribunal would address this issue as it would not be questioned for being politically biased.

Criticism

1. Given the number of ongoing inter-State disputes and those likely to arise in future, it may be difficult for a single institution with a former Supreme Court judge as its chairperson to give its ruling within three years.
2. The finality and enforcement of a tribunal’s award may remain elusive as its interlocutory orders as well as final award are likely to be challenged in the Supreme Court. .
3. The benches of the permanent tribunal are going to be created to look into disputes as and when they arise. It is not clear in what way these temporary benches would be different from the present tribunals.
4. There is a severe lack of comprehensive data that looks at hydrology, meteorology, ecology and economy in an integrated fashion. Without having that data backbone, it will be difficult for a state-level tribunal or a central body to solve any issue.
5. The new tribunal does not address the problem of non-compliance by state governments like in the recent Beas-Satluj Tribunal award.

Conclusion

1. Having an institutional mechanism is one thing, but infusing a sense of responsibility in State governments is quite another. Water disputes have humanitarian dimensions, including agrarian problems worsened by drought and monsoon failures.
2. The Centre’s proposal to set up a single, permanent tribunal, subsuming all existing ad hoc tribunals, to adjudicate on inter-state river water disputes could be a major step towards streamlining the dispute redressal mechanism. But it alone will not be able to address the different kinds of problems—legal, administrative, constitutional and political—that plague the overall framework. Institutional mechanisms should be backed by the political will to make them work.

Sources

http://www.hindustantimes.com/editorials/an-omnibus-court-for-solving-water-disputes-may-not-be-a-panacea/story-l24SjANHpt9CuXQ9BYb47O.html

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/JDRZ3dpZdFPes9qiULWUgO/Addressing-Indias-water-dispute-problem.html

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/Grappling-with-water-disputes/article16906692.ece

https://factly.in/major-inter-state-water-disputes-country/

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/government-to-set-up-single-tribunal-for-inter-state-water-disputes-sharing-problem-4429323/

Question

Q.1) The Centre’s proposal to set up a single, permanent tribunal to solve inter-state river water disputes could be a major step towards streamlining the dispute redressal mechanism. Examine.

Q.2) What are the existing constitutional and legal provisions regarding water? Discuss the pros and cons of setting up a common tribunal to solve inter-state water disputes?

Q.3) Discuss the pros and cons of having permanent river water tribunal in India where there is significant number of such disputes.

Note4Students:

It was debated from long time to give voting rights to NRIs in some form. The govt has proposed for giving proxy voting rights. Lets see what the debate is all about?

Context

1. The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to extend proxy voting to overseas Indians by amending electoral laws.

What is proxy voting and voting by postal ballot?

1. Proxy voting is a type of voting whereby a member can delegate his or her voting power to a representative, to enable a vote in their absence.
2. The representative can be another member of the same body, or external. A human so designated is known as a “proxy”. Presently, only service personnel are permitted to vote through proxy.
3. Postal ballot voting describes the method of voting in an election whereby ballot papers are distributed or returned by post.

About the proxy voting to NRIs

The proxy voting facility would be provided to overseas electors under the following conditions:

(i) One person can act as the proxy for only one overseas elector.

(ii) Only a person already enrolled in the same constituency in which the overseas elector is enrolled can be appointed as proxy for overseas elector.

(iii) The appointment of a proxy shall be valid till the time it is revoked by the elector who can then make a fresh appointment of proxy.

Who will benefit?

1. All Indian passport holders physically not in India at the time their municipality, state or India goes to polls.
2. What about PIO/OCI card holders then? Can they vote? NO. NRIs are not Persons of Indian Origin (PIO).

Which Law has to amended?

1. Representation of People Act, 1950 has to be amended to allow Indian nationals not in Indian territory to vote.

Analysis

Advantages

1. The government’s decision to allow NRIs to vote could emerge as a decisive force in the country’s electoral politics as there are 114 countries that conduct such voting.
2. It will enable India to provide voting rights to NRIs which are enshrined to be given under Article 326.
3. This decision also, historically, removes an “unreasonable restriction” posed by Section 20(A) of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act of 2010, requiring overseas electors to be physically present in their constituencies to cast their votes.
4. There are 10 million Indian citizens staying abroad. The additional votes, polled through this way, will obviously play a crucial role in state and general elections.
5. The traditional argument against such external voting has been that NRIs lack knowledge of domestic conditions. But, today with increased awareness among people who live in other nations, India’s move towards enabling voting from overseas is an instance of a larger global trend towards increased citizen participation.

Criticism

1. There are arguments that a provision of proxy threatens the very core of democracy as how can we give special privilege of distance voting to some people who have migrated abroad when there are many times more domestic migrants who also seek to have a voting right at their homes? It is patently discriminatory. If a person from Bihar moves to Delhi or Mumbai in search of a job or education, he loses his right to chose his legislator in his village but if he goes to London, he will be entitled to special privilege.
2. It cannot be guaranteed that the proxy voter will vote as per the wishes of the actual voter. The method of proxy voting suffers from an inherent problem of trust deficiency and violates the principle of secrecy of voting.
3. Voting from abroad is fraught with other practical challenges like confirming NRI voters before every election and ensuring their post is received on time.
4. There can be no guarantee of NRI voters exercising their vote in a free and fair manner as there can be no check on coercion or inducements by the employers.
5. There is no guarantee that votes would not be sold to the so called proxy.
6. The commission would have to fix the number of votes a proxy could cast in an election. This calls for a drastic amendment to the Representation of People Act. For, currently the Act permits a person to cast only one vote and on introducing the new system, it would have make amendments and also fix the number of vote a person could cast.

Conclusion

Ascertaining the genuineness of the proxy selected by an NRI for casting vote would be the toughest challenge. Before experimenting it in Lok Sabha or Assembly elections, the Election Commission would have to devise a system or work out norms to ensure that a proxy delegated by an NRI is voting as per his desire.

Source

https://thewire.in/165868/nri-proxy-voting/

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/nod-for-proxy-voting-for-nris/article19411086.ece

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/government-clears-proxy-vote-move-for-nris-4779759/

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/challenges-aplenty-for-proxy-voting-for-nris/article19417812.ece

Question:

Q.1) In view of the fact that India doesn’t provide option of proxy voting to its domestic people who migrate to other states, is it fair to give such an option to NRIs who live far off. Give arguments in support of your answer.

Q.2) The government’s idea of providing proxy voting rights to NRIs is seen as a historic decision in the field of providing voting rights to its citizens. Discuss the pros and cons of this decision.