💥UPSC 2026, 2027, 2028 UAP Mentorship (March Batch) + Access XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to mentor

Civilsdaily

Search results for: “”

  • Millets the future of Sustainable Agriculture

    Millets

    Context

    • International Year of Millets in 2023 was approved by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 2018 and the United Nations General Assembly has declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. The Odisha Government had launched Odisha Millet Mission (OMM), which aims to bring millets back to its fields and food plates by encouraging farmers to grow the crops that traditionally formed a substantial part of the diet and crop system in tribal areas.

    Millets

    Importance of millets

    • Nutrition rich: Millet is a good source of protein, fibre, key vitamins, and minerals. The potential health benefits of millet include protecting cardiovascular health, preventing the onset of diabetes, helping people achieve and maintain a healthy weight, and managing inflammation in the gut.Millet is fibrous in content, has magnesium, Niacin (Vitamin B3), is gluten-free and has a high protein content.
    • Requires less water: Millet’s comprise a significant staple in the semiarid tropic and guarantee food and nutritional security for needy individuals, who can’t develop other food crops because of poor rainfall and soil fertility. They are profoundly nutritious and are utilized by people in the rural area.
    • Requires Moderate fertile soils: They can grow in low to medium fertile soils and in areas of low rainfall. Jowar, Bajra, and Ragi are the significant Millet’s developed in India.
    • Profitable crop: Millets are the good choice for farmers to achieve primary goals of Farming e.g., profit, versatility, and manageability.
    • Drought resistant and sustainable: Millet’s are the ‘marvel grains’ of the future as they are drought resistant which need few external inputs. Due to its high resistance against harsh conditions, millets are sustainable to the environment, to the farmer growing it, and provide cheap and high nutrient options for all.
    • Long shelf life: Nearly 40 percent of the food produced in India is wasted every year. Millets do not get destroyed easily, and some of the millets are good for consumption even after 10-12 years of growing, thus providing food security, and playing an important role in keeping a check on food wastage.

    Millets

    What is Odisha Millet mission (OMM) and its impact?

    • Promotion of millets: OMM promotes production and consumption of seven millets. But so far, focus has been on ragi, which has accounted for 86 per cent of the total area under millets, according to data on the OMM website. In contrast, little millet, foxtail millet, sorghum, pearl millet, kodo millet and barnyard millet cover less than 13 per cent of the area.
    • Non ragi millets: Mission aimed at looking for high-yielding seeds for non-ragi millets. Farmers are urged to plant some non-ragi millets
    • Limited procurement: In 2020-21, the state government procured slightly more than 20 million kg of ragi. However, this accounts for only 27 per cent of the total ragi produced, as OMM procures only 500 kg of ragi per ha and leaves the rest for farmers to consume.
    • Millets in diet for complete nutrition: This practice has prompted farmers to consume more millets in all seasons, shows a mid-term evaluation by NCDS in 2019-20. But given that average yield is 1,500 kg per ha, much of the produce does not get procured and farmers are forced to sell it at distressed rate. OMM officials also admit that despite ragi being distributed in PDS and as a mix through anganwadi centres in two districts, its consumption has not picked up in a significant manner.
    • Diverse products of Millets: OMM also sells millet products, such as cookies, savoury snacks, vermicelli and processed millets, under a brand called “Millet Shakti” through food trucks, cafés, kiosks and other outlets.
    • Food processing chain using SHGs: Women self-help groups (SHGs) have been kept at the centre of the programme. They do not just pay a major role in manufacturing biological inputs to improve millet yields and undertake processing of the produce, but also operate the millet-based cafés and outlets.The full potential of SHGs, though, has not yet been realised. So far, only three women’s SHGs manufacture and process Millet Shakti products, which limits the volume available, income generated, and consumption.
    • Market linkage by FPOs: OMM also leverages farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) to provide better marketing linkages. Until now, OMM has tapped into existing FPOs to sell processed millets in the open market or aggregate produce for Tribal Development Co-operative Corporation of Odisha Limited; if a block does not have an FPO, an SHG or community group is registered as one.
    • Current status of FPO’S: Currently, there are 76 FPOs under OMM. But some of them are engaged only in minor processing and aggregation, without plans of scaling up market linkages. Encouraging FPOs with better incentives and benefit-sharing will help them compete in the market

    Millets

    What are other government efforts to promote millet crops?

    • Smart food campaign: Smart Food with the tagline ‘good for you, good for the planet and good for the smallholder farmer’ is an initiative that will initially focus on popularising millets, and sorghum and has been selected by LAUNCH Food as one of the winning innovations for 2017.
    • Popularising the millets: Smart Food will be taken forward as a partnership and many organisations have already teamed up to popularise millets. In India, this includes Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR), National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA).

    Conclusion

    • One way to double farm incomes and encourage farm diversification is to make millet production attractive by introducing millet cultivation in areas where farmers’ distress is visible.Dedicated programmes with proper training and capacity-building initiatives that urge farmers to move away from loss-making crops toward diversification via millets can be a timely method to pull farmers away from the region’s distress.

    Mains Question

    Q.why millets cultivation is suitable for geographic conditions of India? Analyse the various efforts by government to promote the millets.

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Adopting Sustainable Space Technology

    Sustainable

    Context

    • World Space Week this year is themed around ‘Space and Sustainability’. Among other things, the 2022 theme seeks to specifically inspire focus on the challenges the world faces to keep space safe and sustainable.

    What is mean by Space?

    • Space is an almost perfect vacuum, nearly void of matter and with extremely low pressure. In space, sound doesn’t carry because there aren’t molecules close enough together to transmit sound between them. Not quite empty, bits of gas, dust and other matter floats around “emptier” areas of the universe, while more crowded regions can host planets, stars and galaxies.
    • From our Earth-bound perspective, outer space is most often thought to begin about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level at what is known as the Kármán line. This is an imaginary boundary at an altitude where there is no appreciable air to breathe or scatter light. Passing this altitude, blue starts to give way to black because oxygen molecules are not in enough abundance to make the sky blue.

    Sustainable

    What is mean by Space sustainability?

    • Space sustainability is ensuring that all humanity can continue to use outer space for peaceful purposes and socioeconomic benefit now and in the long term. This will require international cooperation, discussion, and agreements designed to ensure that outer space is safe, secure, and peaceful.

    What necessitate the sustainable space technology debate?

    • Mounting challenge of Space debris: Challenges are endless in both quantitative and qualitative terms, i.e., they are several and severe, ranging from satellite crowding and collision risk to space debris in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
    • Ever increasing satellites: The sense of urgency around space sustainability is already skyrocketing—more than 80 countries currently contribute to the over 6,800 active satellites in orbit, of which many are used for both civilian and military purposes, as well as over 30,000 pieces of orbital debris.
    • Militarization of space: Given the development of new and emerging space technologies, the rapid militarisation and securitisation of space, and the growing distrust amongst nations in the domain, space activity is only set to increase and acquire a more national security-oriented focus.
    • Large scale Development of ASAT: This is already visible in several countries around the world. There has been a recent uptick in the development and testing of destructive anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, with 26 tests in the past two decades conducted by the four countries that have access to these weapons (US, Russia, China, and India).
    • Massive investment into military space capability: France, which is currently leading the European Council, has also invested several billion euros into military space capabilities, and regularly emphasises the security importance of space for other EU countries.
    • Increasing Defence space commands: Australia set up its Defence Space Command in early 2022 to increase its strategic potential in space, and South Korea deployed a spy satellite to better monitor North Korea in June 2022, giving its military space plan a huge push.
    • However, none of these countries have a sustainability provision in their defence space operations or programmes.

    Sustainable

    What are the challenges of Security and sustainability of Space?

    • Dichotomy in Security and sustainability: Sustainability and security are two sides of the same coin, but as a result of this inherent dichotomy, they are often juxtaposed against each other.
    • Keeping Security is the priority: The contrast between highly motivated and funded national security efforts and the relatively non-prioritised international engagements around space sustainability is an example of a larger trend of indifference towards sustainable development in favour of higher military spending.
    • SDG on backburner: To substantiate this point, funding for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was adversely affected due to COVID-19 in 2021, and this reportedly dramatically pushed back progress on the SDGs, but the global military expenditure has consistently been on an upward incline and crossed the US$2 trillion mark for the first time in the same year.
    • Securitization of space: The trade-off between security and sustainability can jeopardise sustainable development within a plethora of issue domains, thus, increasing the likelihood of exhausting limited resources. This in turn could exacerbate the risk of conflict due to the resulting scarce resources, ultimately creating a vicious cycle of securitisation and conflict.
    • Rat race in Space : As a case in point, the incumbent space race has always been marked by competing security and commercial interests, which has resulted in a constant escalation of global government spending on space programmes to its record value of US$98 billion in 2021. Space sustainability, on the other hand, has only seen activity recently, and primarily in an international and voluntary set-up.

    Sustainable

    What regulations are needed for Sustainable Space?

    • Prioritising peaceful use of space: A Working Group on the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities was set up by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in 2010, which has 95 UN member states taking part in it. The Group adopted a set of guidelines by consensus in 2019, although it failed to make these guidelines or any other regulations legally binding. It agreed to work over it for 5 years from 2022 onwards, but since the Group uses a consensus-based approach to reach agreements, it is difficult to expect more stringent or extensive regulatory frameworks to emerge from it.
    • Consensus is difficult but necessary: Consensus-based approaches in multilateral forums, especially related to arms or other security objectives, often contrast with individual national security interests of its member states and have been criticised for their slow or ineffective progress.
    • Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons: Another example of this is the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons’ (CCW) Group of Government Experts (GGE) meetings on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), which have only produced a set of 11 non-binding guiding principles since deliberations around LAWS began in 2014.
    • Space sustainable ratings should be developed: The World Economic Forum, for instance, introduced a new standard called the Space Sustainability Rating (SSR), in 2022, which aims to recognise, reward, and encourage space actors to design and implement sustainable and responsible space missions. It remains to be seen whether countries will respond favourably to tools like the SSR, which are based on a positive reinforcement model, to be more space sustainability-conscious.

    Conclusion

    • space sustainability is only at the cusp of becoming actionable. When space experts, intergovernmental organisations, or countries themselves conclude that sustainability should be a part of their space mandate, and when they devise possible methods to help achieve this, they cannot do so in a vacuum. Space sustainability should not become the political football like climate change.

    Mains Question

    Q.What are the threats to sustainable space technology? Comment on various laws, regulations, forums on sustainable space technology.

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Bringing Business friendly Industrial Laws

    Business

    Context

    • The government’s proposal to bring a “holistic decriminalisation” bill in the Winter Session of Parliament, If gets enacted into law, it will be one of India’s greatest reforms since 1991. One of the objectives of this proposed law is to “end harassment and reduce compliance burden on businesses.

     What is Holistic decriminalisation Bill?

    • A new holistic decriminalisation bill is set to amend burdensome provisions in laws related to businesses.
    • Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal said that the Decriminalising sections of various laws will end the harassment faced by businesses and reduce compliance burden. Seeking quick industry feedback on problematic areas that can be covered in the proposed Bill.

    What is the status of existing laws in India?

    • Burden of Imprisonment clauses: Business regulatory universe comprises 1,536 laws, of which more than half, or 843 laws, carry imprisonment clauses. Under these laws, there are 69,233 compliances businesses face as an aggregate, of which almost two out of five, or 26,134, carry imprisonment clauses.
    • Union and state legislations on the compliance: Of the 843 laws with imprisonment clauses, 28.9 percent, or 244 laws, have been enacted by Parliament; the rest by State legislatures and rules. Of the 26,134 compliances that carry imprisonment clauses, a fifth, or 5,239 clauses are situated in Union laws.
    • No institutional support for informal sector: Of the 69 million enterprises in India, only 1 million are formal employers; as a result, the remaining informal enterprises get no access to institutional capital, talent, or supply chains.
    • Smaller the better attitude: India’s predatory and rent-seeking policy infrastructure ensures that businesses choose to remain under the regulatory radar—small may not be beautiful but it is certainly safe. For instance, a small business with 150 employees or more has to deal with 500 to 900 compliances a year, on which it can end up spending up to INR 12-18 lakhs by hiring consultants to be compliant with labour laws, taxes, factories, and so on.
    • Burden of compliance is cost-effective: Creating a regulatory bias against small businesses once a line of scale is crossed, managing a compliance department becomes cost-effective; until then, for the small business owner-manager, compliances becomes a risk-management strategy, almost an economic activity.

    Business

    Why such reforms in business laws are necessary?

    • To attract more investment: When viewed through the lens of the government’s intention to make India an investment destination for global and domestic capital, it would be a reform that should end the endemic of harassment, corruption, and rent-seeking by officials of the Union government.
    • To end corruption at state level: Corruption by officials of state governments will end when criminal provisions in State laws and rules get similarly rationalised; some of these will get rationalised with amendments to Union laws that are enforced by state governments.
    • Encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit: Regulatory framework is cumulative policy actions of the three arms of the State the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary using instruments of legislations, rules, regulations, or orders, to create or raise barriers to a smooth flow of ideas, organisation, money, and, most importantly, the flow of the entrepreneurial spirit.

    Business

    What are the recommendations for Holistic decriminalization?

    • Amend the overreaching laws: Reform all compliances with overarching legislation, across ministries and departments. Smaller steps being taken to ease doing business in India, such as shifting the responsibility under the Legal Metrology Rules from directors to executives, should converge into this single bill.
    • There should be Justifiable imprisonment: Use criminal penalties in business laws with extreme restraint the idea of using a criminal clause as a default option should be done away with and replaced by a justification for imprisonment, including the term in jail.
    • Ending the criminalisation: End the criminalisation of all compliance procedures such as filing on a wrong form or mislabelling.
    • Introducing new laws: Introduce sunset clauses for all imprisonment clauses this needs a new enabling law as a precursor.
    • Bringing extensive Digitisation: Digitise all compliance filings, as has been done by the income tax department.
    • Focus on paperless work: Convert every department that acts as a regulatory body to go paperless and faceless. This should look beyond merely creating a website and uploading records. This will enable automated record reconciliation, identify leakages, detect frauds, and flag discrepancies.
    • More such steps in the right direction: By reducing the compliance burden such that it ends harassment, the government is moving in the right direction. To prevent any policy holes left after the passage of the bill into an act, this is a law that needs to be studied hard, debated well, and only then enacted. Of course, there will be political opposition. It is up to the government to ignore the rhetoric and embrace the solutions for the greater good of the country.

    BusinessConclusion

    • The country is getting ready for third-generation reforms. Among them are reforms that rationalise compliances and imprisonment clauses—retain a handful, reduce or remove most, compound the rest and turn physical imprisonment into financial penalties. The Inspector Raj, expressed through the colonial, corrupt, and rent-seeking policy infrastructure, must be disassembled and jobs, wealth, and large enterprises created.

    Mains Question

    Q. Why current industrial policy and laws are causing the harassment of entreprenuers? Discuss the reforms needed in the light of proposed “ Holistic Discrimination” Bill.

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • [Sansad TV] Perspective – Theatre Commands

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Context

    • India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, late General Bipin Rawat was instrumental in laying down the foundation for joint theatre commands in India.
    • His successor, Lt. General Anil Chauhan has now spelt it as his priority area.
    • In his maiden communication with the three defence forces, the new CDS asked the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to make a move ahead toward the creation of integrated theatre commands.

    What is Theaterisation?

    theatre
    • It is a concept that seeks to integrate the capabilities of the three services — army, air force and navy — and optimally utilise their resources for wars and operations.
    • Specific theatre commands – or units – will be placed under the Theatre Commander.
    • Such commands are expected to come under the operational control of an officer from any of the three services, depending on the function assigned.

    The committee, which was headed by Lt General DB Shekatkar (retd) has recommended the creation of 3 integrated theatre commands i.e.: 

    1. Northern for the China border,
    2. Western for the Pakistan border and
    3. Southern for the maritime role.

     What will it entail?

    • The current theaterisation model under consideration seeks to set up at least six new integrated commands.
    • The first phase involves the creation of Air Defence Command and Maritime Theatre Command.
    • Air Defence Command: This will control air defence resources of all three services and will be tasked with protecting military assets from airborne enemies. It will be headed by a top three-star Indian Air Force officer based in Prayagraj.
    • Maritime Theatre Command: This will be responsible for securing India from seaborne threats and will have army and air force elements. It will be headed by a top three-star Indian Navy officer and will be based in Karwar, Karnataka.
    • Ultimately, India is expected to have three other integrated commands to secure its western, northern and eastern fronts.
    • Additionally, a logistics command is in the works to avoid duplication of efforts and resources.

    How many commands does the military currently have?

    • The armed forces currently have 17 single-service commands spread across the country’s geography.
    • The Army has 7 commands, IAF has 7 commands and the Navy, 3 commands.
    • Creating theatres would involve merging existing commands.
    • The Port Blair-based Andaman and Nicobar Command is the only tri-service command.

    What is the current status?

    • Lack of consensus: A lack of consensus on the military’s theaterisation model emerged during a key meeting of top government officials reviewing a draft cabinet note on the new joint structures.
    • Expert panel working in tandem: This led to the government setting up an expert committee last week for consultations and to remove differences before the reform plan is sent to the Cabinet Committee on Security for approval.  The panel has members of the armed forces, defence ministry and other ministries (finance and home).

    Who has reservations about the current model?

    • In-favor: While the army and navy are in favour of theatre commands, the IAF has concerns about the model over the division of its air assets, the nomenclature of commands, the leadership of theatre commands and dilution of powers of chiefs.
    • Against: The IAF’s traditional resistance to theaterisation is well-known and has been articulated by its top leadership. The expert committee is expected to hold more discussions to iron out the details of the theaterisation plan and bring all stakeholders, especially the IAF, on board.

    Deliberations on the proposal are likely to take more time and previous timelines may have to be revised.

    How will the role of service chiefs change?

    • Operational control of the theatre commands will eventually come under the CDS, with the service chiefs being responsible for raising, training and sustaining their forces.
    • CDS is expected to have operational control over all integrated commands when they are fully functional — this will be in his role as CDS, and not as permanent chairman, COSC.

    Which other militaries have theatre commands?

    • Most leading militaries, including those of the US, Russia, China, UK and France, function as per the theatre command concept with the idea of seamless integration.
    • The US military, the world’s most powerful, has 11 combatant commands, each with a geographic or functional mission.
    • Similarly, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has five theatre commands — eastern, southern, western, northern and central, with its western theatre handling the entire border with India.
    • Pakistan has sought Beijing’s help to reorganise its forces under the same military concept.

    Why is there a need to integrate Armed Forces?

    • Changed nature of warfare: The nature of warfare itself has witnessed a paradigm shift in the planning and execution of operations. The modern-day wars will be fought with simultaneity in a non-linear pattern across the spectrum of land, sea and air.
    • Multi-pronged strategy: The execution of operations would entail well-coordinated offensive-defensive manoeuvres, net-centric operations, information warfare, cyber-attacks, possibly under nuclear overhang etc.
    • Magnifying security threats: India has two hostile nuclear neighbours. Additionally, there is Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in almost half the districts in the country and international power play unfolding in the Indian Ocean region (IOR) as well as the Asia-Pacific Regions.

    Arguments for integrated theatre command

    • Better acclimatisation of troops: This aims to the given battle space, which will assist them to comprehend the operational requirements correctly in the assigned area of operation.
    • Training needs and administrative requirements: This can be better understood for troops, which would allow specialisation and suitable honing of battle drills at all levels.
    • Quick mobilization of troops: Equipment can be procured, maintained and pre-positioned for quick mobilisation and apt application during the envisaged, short-duration, high-intensity war.
    • Optimal use of resources: The allocation of military hardware, in terms of weapon systems, command, control and communication equipment and combat support elements will be theatre specific and result in optimisation of the resources.
    • Precision in combat action: Unified command of the three Services under one designated commander will allow for prompt and precise decision-making and will remove unnecessary tri-services one-man-up ship.

    Challenges ahead

    • Perception of superiority: There is deep-rooted insecurity among the Services, arising out of loss of absolute authority over its Service, loss of identity of each Service in an integrated set up and erosion of empire within each Service. This may lead to unwillingness among the Armed Forces to integrate.
    • Political willingness and divided opinions: This will despite being convinced about the requirement of integration of the Armed Forces. There is a sense of reluctance arising out of insecurity to bestow the complete authority of Armed Forces with one individual.
    • Military hierarchy: The structure of command, i.e. who will report to who within the tri-services and joint theatre command configurations, and who will have operational command over personnel and machinery, service chiefs or theatre commanders.
    • Shortage of resources: Shortages within the Indian Air Force (IAF) which has only 31 operational squadrons against a modest sanctioned strength of 42, would make it difficult for the IAF to permanently station assets in a particular command with territorial boundaries.
    • Inter-services competition: This exists everywhere in the world wherein each service zealously oversees its own assets and strives for a greater share of the defense budget and influence might prove to be an obstacle in creating synergy among the services.
    • India’s limited experience:  India may require a fair bit of mid-course corrections which would require problems to be timely identified and remedied, and slow down the integration process regardless.

    Conclusion

    • Even though both merits and demerits highlight logical arguments, the truth is this was a much-needed reform in Indian Armed Forces.
    • Thus this integration would lead to theaterisation which would further lead to the modernization of forces. Until now, modernization was implemented from the equipment and weapons system per se but this restructuring into unified commands is the other side of modernization of forces.
    • Even though there is a line of difference between Jointmanship among armed forces and Integration of Armed Forces, cooperation is a prerequisite of armed forces.

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Justice DY Chandrachud nominated as next CJI

    cji

    Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit nominated Justice D.Y. Chandrachud as his successor. He will be 50th CJI.

    How is CJI selected?

    • Justice U.U. Lalit is the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court now.
    • The ‘Memorandum of Procedure of Appointment of Supreme Court Judges’ says “appointment to the office of the CJI should be of the seniormost Judge of the SC considered fit to hold the office”.
    • The process begins with the Union Law Minister seeking the recommendation of the outgoing CJI about the next appointment.

    What is the time frame?

    • The Minister has to seek the CJI’s recommendation at the “appropriate time”.
    • The Memorandum does NOT elaborate or specify a timeline.

    Making final appointment

    The Memorandum says:

    1. Receipt of the recommendation of the CJI
    2. The Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs will put up the recommendation to the PM
    3. PM will advise the President in the matter of appointment
    4. The President of India appoints the CJI

    Chief Justice of India: A brief background

    • The CJI is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian federal judiciary.

    Appointment

    • The Constitution of India grants power to the President to nominate, and with the advice and consent of the Parliament, appoint a chief justice, who serves until they reach the age of 65 or until removed by impeachment.
    • Earlier, it was a convention to appoint seniormost judges.
    • However, this has been broken twice. In 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed superseding 3 senior judges.
    • Also, in 1977 Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as the chief justice superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.

    Qualifications

    The Indian Constitution says in Article 124 (3) that in order to be appointed as a judge in the Supreme Court of India, the person has to fit in the following criteria:

    • He/She is a citizen of India and
    • has been for at least five years a Judge of a High Court or of two or more such Courts in succession; or
    • has been for at least ten years an advocate of a High Court or of two or more such Courts in succession; or
    • is, in the opinion of the President, a distinguished jurist

    Functions

    • As head of the Supreme Court, the CJI is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important matters of law.
    • In accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution and the Supreme Court Rules of Procedure of 1966, the chief justice allocates all work to the other judges.

    On the administrative side, the CJI carries out the following functions:

    • maintenance of the roster; appointment of court officials and general and miscellaneous matters relating to the supervision and functioning of the Supreme Court

    Removal

    • Article 124(4) of the Constitution lays down the procedure for removal of a judge of the Supreme Court which is applicable to chief justices as well.
    • Once appointed, the chief justice remains in the office until the age of 65 years. He can be removed only through a process of removal by Parliament as follows:
    • He/She can be removed by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present.
    • The voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proven misbehavior or incapacity.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • India gets 4th set of Swiss Bank account details

    swiss

    India has received the fourth set of Swiss Bank account details of its nationals and organizations as part of annual information exchange, under which Switzerland has shared particulars of nearly 34 lakh financial accounts with 101 countries.

    How India gets such information?

    Ans. Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) Agreement

    • In an effort to bring in transparency and restrict money laundering, the Swiss Federal Office gives a detailed account of the massive AEOI exchange.
    • This is the fourth tranche of information that India has received from Switzerland since the two countries entered into an Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) agreement in January 2018.
    • The first such exchange with India took place in 2019.
    • Some countries which have been added to the Swiss AEOI list for the first time are Turkey, Peru and Nigeria.
    • The Swiss Federal Tax Administration office has also informed that with 74 of these 101 countries, the information exchange was reciprocal.

    What is the volume, nature of data?

    • In 2019, prior to India receiving its first batch of banking information via the AEOI, India would be among 73 countries that would be receiving the data.
    • In India’s case “several dispatches” would be required, giving an indication of the large volume of account holders.

    Guidelines for exchange of such sensitive banking information

    • The guidelines and parameters for the AEOI are set by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the Paris-based international body.
    • The annual exercise of AEOI exchange, such as the current Swiss bonanza of banking details, is strictly meant for “tax only” purposes and in India.
    • This data is kept in the custody of and for action by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
    • Under the OECD’s guidelines, details of the quantum of funds or the names of account holders cannot be publicised.

    What is the scope of India’s AEOI network?

    • Under the OECD umbrella of AEOI, India presently shares bulk financial and banking information with 78 countries.
    • It receives the same from 107 countries, with Switzerland known to be sharing some of the most voluminous data.

    Institutional mechanism in India

    • Primarily to the large volume of FI data coming in from now a 100 countries, the CBDT last year set up a network of Foreign Asset Investigation Units (FAIUs) in 14 of its investigation wings.
    • The information of a region which has reached India via the AEOI route is transmitted in a secure manner.
    • It is the FAIUs that do the follow-up probe of the such data, and to begin with, investigate whether the taxpayer has declared the foreign bank account/s in tax returns or not.

    Why do people park their money in Swiss Banks?

    • As wealth became easily mobile across international borders, the safety and stability of Swiss banks, located in a peaceful country presented an irresistible attraction for the super-rich.
    • Switzerland itself is a politically neutral country.
    • Swiss bank accounts are attractive to depositors because they combine low levels of risk with very high levels of privacy.
    • The Swiss economy is extremely stable, and the banks are run at very high levels of professionalism.
    • Opening an account is not difficult, and requires not much more than basic KYC, including a proof of identity such as a passport.

    Question of Black Money

    • “Black money” allegedly stashed away by Indians in Swiss banks is a political issue in India.
    • Leaders and political functionaries have often made promises to “bring it back” and credit 15 Lakh Rupees in every Indian’s account.
    • Swiss authorities have maintained that they cooperate with the Indian government to fight tax evasion and fraud.

    Also read:

    What are Swiss Banks?

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Israel and Lebanon reach an Agreement on Maritime Border

    israel

    Israel has reached a US-brokered agreement with Lebanon to settle their long-disputed maritime border. This has been seen as a historic deal.

    Israel-Lebanon Boundary Issue

    • The draft agreement aims to settle Israel and Lebanon’s competing claims over offshore gas fields in the region.
    • A major source of friction was the Karish gas field, which Israel insisted fell entirely within its waters and was not a subject of negotiation.
    • The issue is a little over a decade old, after the two countries declared overlapping boundaries in 2011 in the Mediterranean Sea.
    • Since both countries have been technically at war, the United Nations was asked to mediate.
    • The issue gained significance after Israel discovered two gas fields off its coast a decade ago, which experts had believed could help turn it into an energy exporter.

    Key terms of the Agreement

    • The agreement seeks to resolve a territorial dispute in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, in an area that Lebanon wants to explore for natural gas.
    • The gas field in question is located on the maritime boundary between the two countries and this agreement would allow both countries to get royalties from the gas.
    • It also sets a border between the maritime waters of Lebanon and Israel for the first time.

    Why is this agreement signed?

    • Averting terror threats: The agreement is expected to avert the immediate threat of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, after fears of escalation if negotiations fell apart.
    • Energy exploitation: The agreement will create new sources of energy and income for both countries, particularly important for Lebanon, which is facing a crippling energy and financial crises.
    • Alternative energy for Europe: It could also have a potentially wider impact: it would likely provide Europe with a potential new source of gas amid energy shortages caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    What the agreement does not address?

    Ans. Blue Line Issue

    • The agreement does not touch on the shared land border between Israel and Lebanon, which is still disputed, but where both countries are committed to a ceasefire.
    • This border is also called the Blue Line, a boundary that was drawn up by the UN after Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.
    • This land border is currently patrolled by the United Nations forces.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • UN World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC)

    UNWGIC

    PM has inaugurated the second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) in Hyderabad.

    What is UNWGIC?

    • The first United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress was held in Deqing, Zhejiang Province, China in 2018.
    • The United Nation Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) organizes the UNWGIC every four years.
    • It is hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of India.
    • The objectives are enhancing international collaboration among the Member States and relevant stakeholders in Geospatial information management and capacities.
    • The theme of UNWGIC 2022 is ‘Geo-Enabling the Global Village: No one should be left behind’.

    Objectives of UNWGIC

    • The move aims to provide high-quality and trustworthy geospatial data to support global and national policy agendas.
    • It also stresses international cooperation and coordination in the development of human data linked to geography.
    • It promotes societal development and well-being, addresses environmental and climate challenges, and embraces digital transformation and technological advancement.

    Why collaborate on geospatial technology?

    • Geospatial technology can be used to create intelligent maps and models which help to collect geographically referenced data.
    • Decisions based on the value and importance of resources, most of which are limited, can become easy through geospatial technology.
    • Intelligent maps and models can be created using geospatial technology.
    • It can be used to reveal spatial patterns hidden in large amounts of data that are complex to access collectively through mapping.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Q.4 Ethical foundations are as much responsible for good governance as the rule of law. Discuss why ethics is important for good governance and upholding the rule of law. (10 Marks)

    Mentor’s Comments-

    • Introduce your answer by explaining what good governance and rule of law are.
    • Then for the main body, present argument explaining the importance of ethics in good governance and upholding the rule of law.
    • Conclude with consolidating your arguments.

  • 11th October 2022| Daily Answer Writing Enhancement(AWE)

    Topics for Today’s questions:

    GS-1          Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present – significant events, personalities, issues.

    GS-2        Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

    GS-3        Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

    GS-4         Philosophical basis of governance and probity; Information sharing and transparency in government, Right to Information, Codes of Ethics, Codes of Conduct, Citizen’s Charters, Work culture, Quality of service delivery, Utilization of public funds, challenges of corruption.

    Question 1)

     

    Q.1 Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi were two of the stalwarts of the Indian National Movement. Do you think that Gandhian politics was, in a sense, the continuation of Tilak’s politics? (10 Marks)

     

    Question 2)

    Q.2 Despite being lauded for its patient centric approach, the implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, remains sluggish and mired with various issues. Discuss. (10 Marks)

    Question 3)

    Q.3 The recently launched National Logistics Policy truly has the potential to be a game-changer in India’s infrastructure transformation. Discuss. (15 Marks)

    Question 4)  

    Q.4 Ethical foundations are as much responsible for good governance as the rule of law. Discuss why ethics is important for good governance and upholding the rule of law. (10 Marks)

     

    HOW TO ATTEMPT ANSWERS IN DAILY ANSWER WRITING ENHANCEMENT(AWE)?

    1. Daily 4 questions from General studies 1, 2, 3, and 4 will be provided to you.

    2. A Mentor’s Comment will be available for all answers. This can be used as a guidance tool but we encourage you to write original answers.

    3. You can write your answer on an A4 sheet and scan/click pictures of the same.

    4.  Upload the scanned answer in the comment section of the same question.

    5. Along with the scanned answer, please share your Razor payment ID, so that paid members are given priority.

    6. If you upload the answer on the same day like the answer of 11th  February is uploaded on 11th February then your answer will be checked within 72 hours. Also, reviews will be in the order of submission- First come first serve basis

    7. If you are writing answers late, for example, 11th February is uploaded on 13th February , then these answers will be evaluated as per the mentor’s schedule.

    8. We encourage you to write answers on the same day. However, if you are uploading an answer late then tag the mentor like @Staff so that the mentor is notified about your answer.

    *In case your answer is not reviewed, reply to your answer saying *NOT CHECKED*. 

    1. For the philosophy of AWE and payment: 
    CLICK HERE To join Daily AWE

  • Q.3 The recently launched National Logistics Policy truly has the potential to be a game-changer in India’s infrastructure transformation. Discuss. (15 Marks)

    Mentor’s Comments-

    • https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/getting-it-right-in-five-ways/articleshow/94744731.cms
    • In the introduction, mention about the launch of National Logistics Policy and some of its features.
    • In the body, first mention the need of such a policy. Next, talk about the expected benefits of the policy.
    • Next talk about how the policy needs to be synchronized with infrastructure development to achieve its true potential.
    • Conclude by mentioning NLP as the next step forward after some of the earlier schemes to give a boost to the logistics sector.

  • Q.2 Despite being lauded for its patient centric approach, the implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, remains sluggish and mired with various issues. Discuss. (10 Marks)

    Mentor’s Comments-

  • Q.1 Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi were two of the stalwarts of the Indian National Movement. Do you think that Gandhian politics was, in a sense, the continuation of Tilak’s politics? (10 Marks)

    Mentor’s Comments-

    • Briefly mention Gandhi and Tilak as important contributors to the national movement.
    • Explain how Gandhian politics was continuation of Tilak’s methods and ideology.
    • Highlight differences in the methods used by Gandhiji and Tilak.
    • Conclude appropriately.

  • Migrant workers in India

    Migrant

    Context

    • India has used Aadhaar (digital identity) and UPI (digital payments) extensively to address the challenges of identification and financial inclusion in social protection delivery, particularly in the case of migrants.

    Who is a migrant worker?

    • A “migrant worker” is a person who either migrates within their home country or outside it to pursue work.
    • Usually, migrant workers do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
    • As per the census 2011, the total number of internal migrants in India is 36 crore or 37% of the country’s population.
    • The Economic Survey pegged the size of the migrant workforce at roughly 20 percent or over 10 crores in 2016.

    Migrant

    What are the problems faced by migrants?

    • Issues with finding local Employment: Most migrant workers have a seasonal nature of employment. During off-seasons, they struggle to feed their families. Repeated lockdowns made situations more difficult for migrants to find jobs in their localities. They faced travel restrictions which hindered their job search as well.
    • Lack of Insurance Benefits in a Pandemic Environment: Migrant workers work in precarious conditions with little wages and no access to government schemes and services. Poor and unsafe working and living conditions make them prone to diseases. Greater threats of occupational illnesses, nutritional diseases, alcoholism, HIV, and communicable diseases are rampant in the migrant workforce.
    • Issue of timely and Fair Payment of Wages: The informal workforce in India consists of more than 150.6 million regular and daily wage earners. Most of these workers are unaware of their rights as ‘migrant workers. Many unscrupulous agents coerce them and don’t pay minimum wages as per law.
    • Lack of portability of benefits: Migrants registered to claim access to benefits at one location lose access upon migration to a different location. This is especially true of access to entitlements under the PDS.  The ration card required to access benefits under the PDS is issued by state governments and is not portable across states.  This system excludes inter-state migrants from the PDS unless they surrender their card from the home state and get a new one from the host state.
    • Lack of affordable housing: The proportion of migrants in urban population is 47%. In 2015, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs identified migrants in urban areas as the largest population needing housing in cities. There is inadequate supply of low-income ownership and rental housing options.

    Migrant

    Government steps for migrant workers

    • Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana: After the lockdown, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana with a financial package of Rs. 1.7 lakh crore was launched to help poor, needy, and unorganized sector workers of the country.
    • PM SVANidhi Scheme: PM SVANidhi Scheme was launched to facilitate collateral-free working capital loans up to Rs.10,000/- of one-year tenure, to approximately, 50 lakh street vendors, to resume their businesses.
    • Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan: In order to facilitate the employment of migrant workers who have gone back to their home state, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan was initiated in 116 districts in Mission Mode.
    • State migrant cell: Migrant workers’ Cell is being created to prepare a database of migrant workers in states with mapping.
    • eShram portal: It is a national database created to register the unorganised workers in the country, including the migrant workers.
    • National policy on migrant workers: NITI Aayog has been mandated to prepare a draft national policy on migrant workers to reimagine labour-capital relations while integrating the migrant workers within the formal workforce.

    How technology could provide Solutions?

    • Providing digital public infrastructure (DPI):  Digital public infrastructure systems that enable the effective provision of essential society-wide functions and services  can enable a paradigm shift, allowing governments to co-create solutions with the private sector and civil society.
    • Adopting Public private partnership models: There are three key areas where DPI can enable public-private partnerships (PPP) in the delivery of social protection of migrants,
    1. Awareness of entitlements: One barrier faced at the initial stage is lack of awareness of entitlements or of the need to reapply, when migrants move from one state to another. Jan Saathi is an application that provides migrants withinformation on eligible social security schemes. Organisations such as Haqdarshak not only inform potential beneficiaries about their eligibility for various schemes, Central or State, but also help them avail entitlements.
    2. Information about livelihoods and housing: The informal nature of the labour market makes access to affordable and safe living conditions a challenge, especially if the family migrates as a unit. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairshas introduced the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes under PMAY-Urban but the availability of such facilities is inadequate compared to the number of migrants. Bandhu’s ecosystem of applications connect migrant workers directly with employers and housing providers, to give them more informed choices. Jobsgaar and MyRojgaar also play a similar role by connecting workers to employers.
    3. Healthy Grievance redressal Mechanism: Gram Vaani bridges the gap in grievance redressal by providing a platform where citizens can use Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to record their grievance in accessing entitlements. Aajeevika Bureau and The Working People’s Charter built the India Labourline to provide legal aid and mediation services to migrant workers.
    • Adopting a well-designed data: While a growing ecosystem of private players (NGOs, civil society organisations, not-for-profit and for-profit entities) are addressing these needs, well designed data exchanges can help unlock a strong public-private collaboration in the delivery of social protection.

    Migrant

    What more government can do to address the issue of migrants?

    • Creating centralized data: The state’s digital efforts are often in siloes and the need to maximize the use of data across schemes and departments is a high priority.
    • E-Shram: Initiatives such as direct benefit transfers and linking schemes for the portability of entitlements have shown promise. e-Shram, which is a national database of unorganized workers, aims to reduce access barriers to social protection for migrants.
    • Making portable entitlement: Recent announcements of API-based integration of e-Shram with the various state government labor departments and with the One Nation One Ration Card scheme are a step in that direction.
    • Working with the private sector: Enabling linkages of migrant data with the private sector can lead to benefits on the demand side, in the form of reduced transaction costs in identifying jobs, affordable housing, and redressal of grievances.
    • Engaging the private sector: Private players who have established relationships with these mobile populations can help the state in planning and forecasting the demand for benefits. An example of this is the digital payment ecosystem since the introduction of UPI.

    Conclusion

    • Digital technologies have potential solutions to problems and transform the livelihood of migrants. The need for adequate data protection and safeguards is essential for the implementation of any such initiative.

    Mains Question

    Q.Enlist the problem faced by migrant workers? Elaborate on how use of technology can solve the many problems of migrants.

     

  • Urban Challenge, Problems and Solutions

    Context

    • After flooding of major metropolitan cities of Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Delhi following heavy rainfall, the Centre has pointed to two cities – Davanagere and Agartala – as successful examples of cities that have curbed urban flooding.

    Why cities are  so important in India?

    • Drivers of Growth: Urbanisation has played and will continue to play a critical role in India’s growth story in the 21st century.
    • Cities are seen as GDP multipliers: By some estimates, Indian cities already contribute up to 70% of the country’s GDP. Yet, depending on which official estimates you use, India is just 26% or 31% urban. But there is growing evidence that India is more urban than is officially recognized.
    • Cities have more productivity: Well-functioning and diverse cities allow for the sharing and cross-pollination of ideas, which in turn drive greater productivity.

    Urban

    What are the Urban challenges?

    • Lack of Planning: current urban planning policies and practice have led to suboptimal use of land in Indian cities. This has multiple consequences. There is not enough floor space for accommodating migrants in search of economic opportunities; they make space for themselves in informal settlements. There is also not enough land in the public domain for developing adequate open spaces or augmenting infrastructure capacities.
    • Lack of Housing:The pandemic revealed that the cities’ economies rely on migrant populations in the formal and informal sectors. Workers in both markets move from rural to urban and urban to urban areas as they find better opportunities; they are mobile and need adequate rental options. Today, in most Indian cities, this demand is not met and leads to unaffordable options, pushing the poorer sections out to slums and other informal settlements.
    • Lack of Transport: Indian cities are infamous for their road congestion; three of them rank in the 10 most congested in the world according to the 2020 TomTom Travel Index with Mumbai ranking second. The existing public transportation systems are already overcrowded and of poor quality.
    • Lack of Public health: Like other health crises, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need to ensure adequate healthcare services and sanitation infrastructure for a healthy population in cities. In the initial months of the outbreak, the focus of health services shifted entirely towards addressing the novel coronavirus, leaving other health issues unaddressed and shutting down routine care services.
    • Impact on Environment: The causes for low air quality are multiple; vehicular movement and on-road congestion are major contributors. A safe and clean environment is key to good public health.
    • Problems faced by vulnerable sections: The economic shock and work from home guidelines changed migration patterns; workers in cities returned to their home towns and villages. Slum dwellers, with limited access to adequate infrastructure, and migrant workers, disenfranchised from social protection systems or daily wagers, were more vulnerable to this shock. In the medium and long term, it is difficult to predict what the job market will be in cities.

    Urban

    What can be done to address the urban challenges?

    • Future planning is necessary: Manage the spatial growth of cities and allow them to build more planned road networks for future horizontal expansion and revoke faulty policies that constrain the use of floor space to build vertically.
    • Housing for all scheme is important: Focus on providing public housing for the poor; India can learn from successful models in Singapore or Hong Kong and understand the strategic challenges of other international examples such as Mexico. India can also work toenable efficient rental markets
    • Holistic transport should be focused: Integrate formal and informal modes of transportation into holistic transportation strategies to ensure seamless mobility, as well as first and last mile connectivity.
    • Increasing funds to Cities: Decentralise fiscal powers to the local level and train city authorities so that they can make more strategic decisions in health expenditures or public health infrastructure, as well as gain the capacity to raise their own resources.
    • Need of a healthy Environment: Increase the number of open spaces in the public domain, maintain them and monitor their use. Prepare for disasters with robust framework of physical infrastructures, road networks and large open spaces. Build adequate infrastructure to support the sustainable development of emerging Tier-2 and Tier 3 towns.
    • More attention to vulnerable: Develop more systematic identification mechanisms of the urban poor to ameliorate the delivery of public services and social protection. Collect accurate data on migrant population and capture their socio-economic diversity to better address their needs. Monitor access to services, housing and jobs of the vulnerable communities in real time.

    Urban

    Conclusion

    • Urban infrastructure is crumbling day by day. In the next 25 years, cities will have more population than rural areas. Indian cities need urgent reform in order to unlock their economic potential and transform quality of life.

    Mains Question

    Q.Discuss the urban infrastructure challenges? What are the governments scheme and actions to address the urbanization challenges?

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Critical Minerals: Opprtunity for Aatmanirbharta in Energy security.

    Minerals

    Context

    • In his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted the country to pursue aatmanirbhar bharta in energy by focusing on clean energy technologies. Securing access to key critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth metals is critical for building resilient and indigenous supply chains for clean energy technologies.

    Background 

    • Concerns over the pricing and availability of oil and gas in the wake of the Ukraine crisis continue to fuel global policy debates on energy security. However, the fragility of clean energy supply chains obscures pathways for countries to reduce dependence on fossil fuel.
    • Imported inflationary pressures through exposure to volatile oil and gas markets also pose risks to macroeconomic growth and stability, particularly for India, import ­dependent for around 85% of its oil and half of its gas needs.

    Minerals

    What are Critical Minerals?

    • Critical minerals are elements that are the building blocks of essential modern-day technologies, and are at risk of supply chain disruptions.
    • These minerals are now used everywhere from making mobile phones, computers to batteries, electric vehicles and green technologies like solar panels and wind turbines.
    • Based on their individual needs and strategic considerations, different countries create their own lists.
    • However, such lists mostly include graphite, lithium, cobalt, rare earths and silicon which is a key mineral for making computer chips, solar panels and batteries.
    • Aerospace, communications and defence industries also rely on several such minerals as they are used in manufacturing fighter jets, drones, radio sets and other critical equipment.

    Why is this resource critical?

    • As countries around the world scale up their transition towards clean energy and digital economy, these critical resources are key to the ecosystem that fuels this change.
    • Any supply shock can severely imperil the economy and strategic autonomy of a country over-dependent on others to procure critical minerals.
    • But these supply risks exist due to rare availability, growing demand and complex processing value chain.
    • Many times the complex supply chain can be disrupted by hostile regimes, or due to politically unstable regions.
    • They are critical as the world is fast shifting from a fossil fuel-intensive to a mineral-intensive energy system.

    MineralsWhat are Rare Earth Metals?

    • The rare earth elements (REE) are a set of seventeen metallic elements. These include the fifteen lanthanides on the periodic table plus scandium and yttrium.
    • Rare earth elements are an essential part of many high-tech devices.
    • They have a wide range of applications, especially high-tech consumer products, such as cellular telephones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, and flat-screen monitors and televisions.
    • Significant defense applications include electronic displays, guidance systems, lasers, and radar and sonar systems.
    • Rare earth minerals, with names like neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium, are crucial to the manufacture of magnets used in industries of the future, such as wind turbines and electric cars.

    Applications of REMs in various fields:

    • Electronics: Television screens, computers, cell phones, silicon chips, monitor displays, long-life rechargeable batteries, camera lenses, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), baggage scanners, marine propulsion systems.
    • Defense Sector: Rare earth elements play an essential role in our national defense. The military uses night-vision goggles, precision-guided weapons, communications equipment, GPS equipment, batteries, and other defense electronics. These give the United States military an enormous advantage. Rare earth metals are key ingredients for making the very hard alloys used in armored vehicles and projectiles that shatter upon impact.
    • Renewable Energy: Solar panels, Hybrid automobiles, wind turbines, next-generation rechargeable batteries, bio-fuel catalysts.
    • Manufacturing: High strength magnets, metal alloys, stress gauges, ceramic pigments, colorants in glassware, chemical oxidizing agent, polishing powders, plastics creation, as additives for strengthening other metals, automotive catalytic converters
    • Medical Science: Portable x-ray machines, x-ray tubes, magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) contrast agents, nuclear medicine imaging, cancer treatment applications, and for genetic screening tests, medical and dental lasers.
    • Technology: Lasers, optical glass, fiber optics, masers, radar detection devices, nuclear fuel rods, mercury-vapor lamps, highly reflective glass, computer memory, nuclear batteries, high-temperature superconductors.

    DO YOU KNOW?

    Metals such as cadmium, lead are often used in manufacturing plastic and over time can enter coastal waters. These are acutely harmful for coastal wildlife and humans.Different kinds of plastic releases different kinds of metals  that may release when exposed to water and UV lights.

    What are the challenges in accessing Critical minerals?

    • Deposits in geopolitically sensitive regions: Reserves are often concentrated in regions that are geopolitically sensitive or fare poorly from an ease of doing business perspective.
    • Controlled production:  A portion of existing production is controlled by geostrategic competitors. For example, China wields considerable influence in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo through direct equity investments and its Belt and Road Initiative.
    • Agreements in advance from outside: Future mine production is often tied up in off take agreements, in advance, by buyers from other countries to cater to upcoming demand.

    MineralsA step taken by Indian government for sourcing strategic minerals

    • For sourcing of strategic minerals, the Indian government established Khanij Bidesh  India Limited (KABIL) in 2019 with the mandate to secure mineral supply for the domestic market.

    What is Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL)?

    • Joint venture: A joint venture company namely Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. (KABIL)  set up with the participation of three Central Public Sector Enterprises namely, National Aluminium Company Ltd.(NALCO), Hindustan Copper Ltd.(HCL) and Mineral Exploration Company Ltd. (MECL).
    • Objective: The objective of constituting KABIL is to ensure a consistent supply of critical and strategic minerals to Indian domestic market. While KABIL would ensure mineral security of the Nation, it would also help in realizing the overall objective of import substitution.

    Suggestions based on Council on energy environment and water (CEEW) to achieve the objective of KABIL

    • Mapping out the domestic requirement: Figure out the mineral requirements of the domestic industry. This could best be accomplished by a task force which includes the ministries of power, new and renewable energy, heavy industry, and science and technology.
    • Clear road map for indigenous manufacturing: Five­ year road maps with clear targets for deployment and indigenous manufacturing across clean energy applications would provide visibility to domestic investors. Assess the technology mix that would support this deployment. On this basis, determine the quantities of minerals necessary to support indigenous manufacturing.
    • Better coordination between different stakeholders: Coordinate with the domestic industry to determine where strategic interventions by the government would be necessary for the purpose.KABIL could collaborate with industry to bolster its market intelligence capabilities for tracking global supply­ side developments.
    • Preemptive agreements through KABIL for reliable supply: If conducive investment opportunities don’t exist KABIL should pre­emptively sign off take agreements with global  mineral suppliers to secure future production. It could aggregate reliable supply of minerals for domestic requirements  and sign back ­to­ back sales agreements with the domestic industry .Such large scale centralised  national procurement could be done at preferential terms.
    • Joint Investment In mining assets to mitigate investment risks: The government should jointly invest in mining assets with geostrategic partners. KABIL should make equity investments in mining jurisdictions that private sector investors may deem too risky. It should leverage government­ to­ government partnerships to mitigate investment risks. This could be done through joint investments with sovereign entities from geostrategic partners or private sector entities with expertise in specific geographies.
    • Finding the alternatives: Technologies such as sodium ­ion batteries could reduce requirements for sourcing minerals from beyond India’s borders.  It could also propose co­ development of such technologies with geostrategic partners.
    • Developing policies on sustainable urban mining and recycling: Develop policies on urban mining aimed at recycling mineral inputs from deployments that have completed their useful life. These could help further reduce dependence on international sourcing.

    Conclusion

    • Besides Ukraine, other potential geopolitical flash points also exist against a backdrop of dwindling multilateral cooperation. India must act immediately and decisively to mitigate  these risks  to its energy security.

    Mains Question

    Q.What are critical minerals? Why the critical minerals are so important? What steps India can take to achieve the objective of Atmanirbhar Bharat in domestic mineral supply and thereby mitigating energy security risks?

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

     

  • banner slider

    [slide-anything id=”707965″]

    [slide-anything id=”712239″]

  • Get IAS Officer as Mentor

    with carefully designed Super Mentorship Program

    Unlock your full potential by learning that matter most and become IAS Officer in 1st Attempt

    Register for the Program

    [contact-form-7 id=”646449″ title=”Quora Form”]

    To get up to 15% OFF on Course Fee

    What will you Get?

    UPSC Foundation Courses

    Layer 1: You will be assigned a dedicated in-house mentor who will keep track of our progress from start till your final interview.

    Layer 2: Sajal Singh sir and the team will be constantly with you through various programs like Samachar Manthan, Prelims, Essay, etc.

    Layer 3: A UPSC IAS ranker (one who has cleared this exam) will be supervising your progress as your super mentor.

    Schedule your call for super Mentorship

    Know your Super Mentors…

    …many more

    Civilsdaily IAS Coaching Institute is one of the top UPSC coaching in India as it gives a well-planned route map to crack the Civil Service Exam.

    The Hindu has solemnly acknowledged Civilsdaily’s high rated mentorship program…

    UPSC Test series & Mock Test

    Did you Know?

    Every year, more than 25% of the officers selected through UPSC Civil Services Examination are students of Civilsdaily.

    Over 200 Selections in UPSC CSE 2021 from Civilsdaily…

    Best Online Coaching for UPSC
    https://youtu.be/xj7xoicdZZc
    APPLY NOW (LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE)

  • Economics Nobel for work on Role of Banks during Financial Crisis

    nobel

    The Nobel Prize for Economics in 2022 was awarded to Ben S Bernanke, Douglas W Diamond and Philip H Dybvig for research on banks and financial crises.

    Do you know?

    • The economics prize is not one of the original five awards created in the 1895 will of industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.
    • It was established by Sweden’s central bank and first awarded in 1969, its full and formal name being the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

    Why was the Nobel given to these three scholars?

    • The research of the three laureates has helped us understand the role of banks in the economy, particularly during financial crises.
    • Their research shows why avoiding a bank collapse is very important for the economy.

    Which bank did these scholars study?

    • In 1656, the then-king of Sweden approved the foundation of Sweden’s first bank, the Stockholms Banco, which also became the first bank to issue banknotes in Europe.
    • However, Banco over-issued notes leading to its liquidation in 1667.
    • In 1668, the Swedish Nobles decided to found the Riksens Standers Bank, which was later renamed as Sveriges Riksbank in 1867.
    • In 1968, on its tercentenary, the Sveriges Riksbank decided to award the economics prize in memory of Alfred Nobel.
    • The award itself was the result of an ongoing crisis and conflict between the central bank and the government.
    • The purpose of mentioning this history is to highlight how failures are central to banks.
    • Banks have failed ever since they were created.

    What does Ben Bernanke say about banking crises?

    • In the 1930s, the world economy faced a serious economic contraction called the Great Depression.
    • For many years, it was thought the Great Depression was due to a lack of policy stimulus.
    • The economist John Maynard Keynes had argued that monetary policy was ineffective in such crises as interest rates could not go lower than zero percent, and one needed a large fiscal stimulus.
    • Milton Friedman argued that central banks could create money even when interest rates were zero by buying assets, thereby increasing the money supply.

    Reasons behind the crisis

    • Bernanke said that while a lack of policy stimulus explains the contraction, it does not explain why the Great Depression continued for such a long time.
    • The economic contraction had led to a large number of bank failures.
    • His argument was that it was this large-scale failure of banks which prolonged the crisis.
    • Banks were not in a position to channel loans towards productive activities, leading to the crisis becoming more severe in the US.

    How is bank failure attributed to the financial crisis?

    • Banks have special insights into companies, and when a bank fails, all this information is lost.
    • A failed banking system takes many years to repair and the economy performs very poorly in this period.
    • This explains why the Great Depression became such a prolonged crisis.
    • Bernanke drew his analysis from a deep understanding of economic and monetary history.
    • This prize also shows the importance of history, which is becoming rarer in economic research.

    What are Diamond’s and Dybvig’s insights into banking crises?

    • Bernanke explained what happens when banks fail. But Diamond and Dybvig explained why banks fail.
    • In joint research, hence called the Diamond-Dybvig model, they explain that banks fail when depositors rush for their money.
    • In their model, banks are seen as financial intermediaries that intermediate funds from depositors to loan seekers.
    • The deposits are for shorter durations whereas loans are typically given for longer durations (technically called the maturity transformation function of banks).
    • The banks are seen as entities that help savers meet investors, and by channeling loans towards good projects, banks help an economy grow.

    How bank failure is related to depositors?

    • Banks are prone to runs by depositors.
    • In their research, they show that once there is a rumor about a bank’s weakness, it spreads like wildfire, causing a bank run, when depositors literally run for their funds to the bank.
    • As banks lend most of the funds towards long-term projects, the loans cannot be recalled easily to repay the depositors.
    • If the rumor is not addressed, it leads to eventual bank failure.

    Is it Nobel-worthy?

    • While many know this is basically how banks fail, the prize-winning duo formalized the model.
    • They also presented a solution for bank failures via deposit insurance, which was also introduced before their research.
    • In 1933, the US was the first country to adopt deposit insurance, followed by India in 1962.
    • Both adopted deposit insurance after a significant number of banks failed in these countries.

    What does the prize mean for Indian banking?

    • India has been facing sporadic banking crises from 2013 where few banks failed.
    • Bernanke’s research shows how once a crisis starts, it can prolong not just banking problems but also lower economic growth over time.
    • Diamond-Dybvig’s research shows how the weak performance of individual banks like the Punjab and Maharashtra Urban Cooperative Bank and Yes Bank lead to runs.
    • Such banks need to be bailed out by the government.
    • There was also the case of ICICI bank which faced a run in 2008 based on rumours, but the run was stalled by the central bank by issuing a notification assuring the sound health of the bank.

    You must know this!

    • Economist and former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief Raghuram Rajan seemed to have missed out on the award.
    • He is a leading scholar on banking and has written many research papers with this year’s awardee, Douglass Diamond.
    • The Nobel committee has cited 12 of his research papers, which are a significant contribution to the field of banking.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • [Burning Issue] Successes and Failures of GST after 5 years

    [Burning Issue] Successes and Failures of GST after 5 years

    Context

    • The monumental indirect tax reform, the Goods and Services Tax (GST), completed five years in existence in July 2022.
    • This burning issue edition would analyze the impacts of GST on the Indian economy and whether the reform has achieved its stated objectives or not.

    What is GST?

    • GST is an indirect tax that has replaced many indirect taxes in India such as excise duty, VAT, services tax, etc.
    • The Goods and Service Tax Act was passed in Parliament on 29th March 2017 and came into effect on 1st July 2017. It is a single domestic indirect tax law for the entire country.
    • It is a comprehensive, multi-stage, destination-based tax that is levied on every value addition.
    • Under the GST regime, the tax is levied at every point of sale. In the case of intra-state sales, Central GST and State GST are charged. All the inter-state sales are chargeable to the Integrated GST.

    What are the components of GST?

    There are three taxes applicable under this system:

    • CGST: It is the tax collected by the Central Government on an intra-state sale (e.g., a transaction happening within Maharashtra).
    • SGST: It is the tax collected by the state government on an intra-state sale (e.g., a transaction happening within Maharashtra).
    • IGST: It is a tax collected by the Central Government for an inter-state sale (e.g., Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu)

    Why was GST introduced?

    • Offer a win-win situation: The profound idea behind the implementation of GST was that it would offer a win-win situation for all stakeholders, be it the governments at the Centre or States, taxpayers, or tax administrators.
    • Address previous tax regime challenges: Previous indirect tax regime was marred by cascading effect of taxation, high tax evasion and informalisation. GST was a solution for all these negativities.
    • Benefit all stakeholders: Manufacturers and traders were to benefit from fewer and easier electronic tax filings, transparent rules, cost reduction and ease in record maintenance. Consumers would be paying lesser for the goods and services, and the government would generate more revenues by plugging revenue leakages through the adoption of efficient data analytic tools.

    Outcomes after 5 years of GST implementation

    (A) Positive outcomes

    • Reduced cascading effect: GST has mainly removed the cascading effect on the sale of goods and services. Removal of the cascading effect has impacted the cost of goods as the GST regime eliminates the tax on tax, and the cost of goods decreases.
    • Increase in the number of registrants: The ease of payments has improved over time with the technical glitches having been slowly sorted out, leading to a record number of GST registrants – increasing from 1.08 crore in April 2018 to 1.36 crore in 2022.
    • Increased revenue generation: The revenue gains have been significant. The system witnessed record GST collections on a month-on-month basis. For the past 11 months, GST collections have crossed Rs 1 lakh crores mark.
    • Improved EDB rankings: The introduction of GST has simplified business processes, tax administration and compliances in India. The Ease of Doing Business Index, a measure used by the World Bank Group in which ‘paying taxes’ is one of the important parameters used to determine country rankings, has shown significant change. India’s ranking during the last three years showed a sharp upward momentum from 100 in 2018 to 77 in 2019 and 63 in 2020 – a jump of 37 places in 3 years.
    • GST and technology: With the introduction of GST, the country adopted a pan-India technology platform. After the initial hiccups, the GST portal started handling registration and compliance functions with consummate ease. Also, the integration of the Customs/SEZ portal and sharing of data with other departments/regulators within the government helped explore the unexplored areas of data analytics and audit.
    • Robust unified e-way bill system: introduced in 2018, has facilitated dispensing with the archaic check-posts, thereby reducing supply chain lead time and associated costs for companies and helping the tax administration monitor tax compliances and potential revenue leakages better.
    • The introduction of e-invoicing: from October 2020, provided a system that allows real-time data reporting by taxpayers. The availability of real-time and relevant data helped in the detection of tax fraud and curbing evasion. Further, the standardized format and data reporting allowed the interoperability of data for multiple reports and filings.
    • Rate reshuffling: One of the important principles of the GST is a simplified rate structure. The government has made attempts to reshuffle the rates, with the number of goods in the 28% and 5% tax brackets coming down considerably in the previous five years.

    (B) Negative Outcomes

    • Politics influence the decision of the GST Council: Ideally, political affiliations should not matter in a Council set up to decide indirect taxes. During the Covid period, several of the 14 members of the groups who belong to parties different from the party ruling in the Centre, requested the Finance Minister to convene the GST meeting to help them manage their finances but none of the 17 members of the ruling group deemed it necessary.
    • Increase in inflation: During the 12 months preceding GST implementation, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation was 3.66%, while it increased to 4.24% post-GST in the next 12 months.
    • Provisions for unregistered GST suppliers: The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector has been affected by the GST reforms because the large units have been reluctant to buy from them in the absence of input duty credit.
    • Reduced GDP rate: GDP growth rate, instead of rising, has fallen quarter-on-quarter from 8% in Q4 of 2017-18 to 3.1% in Q4 of 2019-20, just before the pandemic hit. Of course, the entire decline cannot be attributed to GST but it has contributed substantially to it by damaging the unorganized non-agriculture sector which is 31% of the GDP.
    • Operational difficulties: Due to the complexities and lack of clarity in official pronouncements, businesses and chartered accountants complain of difficulties. A company that operates nationally has to file forms monthly for each state of operation – adding up to hundreds of forms. 
    • Not truly one nation, one tax: While a category of good or service has one tax rate nationally, across goods and services there are many tax rates (at least 8). This goes counter to the requirement of GST that there be one tax rate but in an economy like India that is not feasible given the poverty and diversity of production structures.

    Way Forward

    • Refining the compliance system of GST: A GST in India continues to be a compliance burden with manifold filing obligations and lengthy returns. This has led to exorbitant compliance costs and efforts. An urgent need is to have rationalized, simplified, robust and reduced compliance conditions with sufficient scope for rectification and amendment to guarantee that correct disclosure can be made with the minimum difficulty and delay.
    • Improving the GSTN system: One of the big challenges is that the GST Network (GSTN) compliance portal is yet to reach full operating capacity. From a credit standpoint, the GSTN portal has not accomplished the capability to match the efficacy of invoices. This is perhaps the main reason for fraudulent activities and fake invoices. The basic idea behind the digitalization of returns was to guarantee accurate compliance, leading to an accurate streamlining of credit and taxes.
    • Further rate streamlining: A uniform and rationalized tax rate structure is a central characteristic of any effective GST legislation. Although the GST legislation has made some advances on this front, much work is needed to attain this target. Many nations implementing GST have only one rate for all items. From zero to 28%, India has seven rates, and this number goes up if we also take into account compensation rates. It would be better to reduce the GST tax rates to two or three.
    • HS codes: There is also the requirement to restructure the GST rate list and make it compatible with machine processing. The GST uses harmonized structure (HS) codes for classifying most items. All GST rates should confirm to HS’s six-digit standard description. 
    • Formation of the GST Appellate Tribunal: Even after half a decade of GST execution, the GST Appellate Tribunal is yet to be established. This has resulted in multiple court cases, heavy interest costs and GST refunds being trapped. The wait for the creation of a statutory appellate tribunal discourages the dispute resolution method. The GST has resulted in a sharp rise in litigation largely because of ambiguous legal stipulations and how officials have issued orders.
    • Increased investment in technology: With technology impacting all parts of the business, greater investment in technology for updating the user interface and making it simpler to use, especially for small and medium enterprises, could place the GST in India on par with the rest of the world and help accomplish the bigger goal of the ease of doing business.
    • Raising the exemption limit: The government must set small business firms free by lifting the exemption limit. As per GST data, out of 14 million registrations, companies with less than INR15 million annual turnover account for 84%, but contribute less than 7% of the tax collected. The exemption limit must be lifted to INR15 million for goods and services. This is a monthly turnover of INR1.5 million, which at 10% of the profit margin converts into just INR120,000.
    • Inclusion of fuels and real estate: Including natural gas/ATF under GST should be considered. Further reforms in the factor markets — land, real estate and energy — would require their inclusion in the GST. This is essential because while the economic reforms of the 1990s restructured the product market, the factor market reforms were incomplete.
    • Creation of federal institution: We need to create another institution in the form of a GST state secretariat that can bring together senior officers from the Centre and states in an institutional forum registered under the Society Act. This forum could also provide a common point of contact for trade and industry to redress grievances on non-policy matters.

    Conclusion

    • As Winton Churchill remarked ‘success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts!’
    • Therefore, the GST reform has come a long way but still, multiple challenges are to be addressed to make it a success and achieve the objectives that were stated during its launch.  

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

More posts