The logo for India’s upcoming G20 presidency was officially unveiled recently at the Hornbill festival in Nagaland.
What is Hornbill Festival?
The Hornbill Festival is a celebration held every year from 1 – 10 December, in Kohima, Nagaland.
The festival was first held in the year 2000.
It is named after the Indian hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird which is displayed in the folklore of most of the state’s tribes.
Festival highlights include the traditional Naga Morungs exhibition and the sale of arts and crafts, food stalls, herbal medicine stalls, flower shows and sales, cultural medley – songs and dances, fashion shows etc.
About Great Indian Hornbill
IUCN status: Vulnerable (uplisted from Near Threatened in 2018), CITES: Appendix I
The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) also known as the great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill, is one of the larger members of the hornbill family.
The great hornbill is long-lived, living for nearly 50 years in captivity.
It is predominantly fruit-eating, but is an opportunist and preys on small mammals, reptiles and birds.
Its impressive size and colour have made it important in many tribal cultures and rituals.
A large majority of their population is found in India with a significant proportion in the Western Ghats and the Nilgiris.
The nesting grounds of the birds in the Nilgiris North Eastern Range are also believed to support some of their highest densities.
Their ecological significance
Referred to as ‘forest engineers’ or ‘farmers of the forest’ for playing a key role in dispersing seeds of tropical trees, hornbills indicate the prosperity and balance of the forest they build nests in.
Threats
Hornbills used to be hunted for their casques — upper beak — and feathers for adorning headgear despite being cultural symbols of some ethnic communities in the northeast, specifically the Nyishi of Arunachal Pradesh.
Illegal logging has led to fewer tall trees where the bird’s nest.
Try this PYQ:
In which of the following regions of India are you most likely to come across the ‘Great Indian Hornbill’ in its natural habitat? (CSP 2016)
Only 24 weeks or less than 170 days are left for UPSC Prelims 2023. Starting today only those aspirants will be able to clear the Prelims who have a well-laid-out plan, the best or most relevant resources (notes, tests, etc.), guidance, and most important of all, a will to succeed.
This is for you if:
You haven’t been able to clear prelims for the past 2-3 years
Perform well in mocks but get stuck in the 70-85 marks range in UPSC Prelims.
You don’t know how to approach a Prelims paper: should you go for the accuracy or maximum number of questions, should you start from questions 1 to 100, or go section-wise.
Don’t know the logical techniques to tackle bouncer-type completely random questions
Can’t use smart and intelligent ways rather than just end up working hard without any use.
Do you know that only 0.02% of aspirants are able to go beyond 120+ consistently? Achieving this in next 165 days will need a rock solid strategy.
Santosh Gupta
Let me reiterate the facts: Of all the candidates applying for IAS Prelims 2023, only 1% of them will clear Prelims 2023 it. And only a fraction of that will go beyond 120+ marks. Santosh sir, cleared all his 6 UPSC Prelims, every time scoring 120+ marks. Even his UPSC 2022 students scored 130+ without breaking a sweat.
Santosh sir has been helping aspirants clear UPSC Prelims year after year. Here is a screenshot of his students who wrote Mains 2022.
Tavishi failed thrice in the Prelims before but after joining Santosh sir’s mentorship cleared Prelim 2022 on her 4th attempt.
Santosh sir will be taking an important webinar for UPSC 2023 aspirants.
Webinar Details: How to Smash Prelims 2023 in the next 165 days? Get a rock solid 24 week’s strategy and Prelims PDF notes
We will email the invitation, Zoom link, and notes.
What you’ll learn in the Webinar?
How to prepare for UPSC Prelims 2023 successfully starting today? With less than 6 months in hand, how to go forward?
Santosh sir will share a workable and proven strategy for the next 165 days (around 24 weeks), including both micro and macro plans.
A brief trend analysis of the past 5 yrs’ UPSC Prelims GS 1 paper. How to change your preparation methods right now?
How to cover the massive UPSC prelims syllabus? both GS and Current Affairs
Most Probable Topics to Cover for Prelims 2023 for every GS subject.
How to cover Current Affairs? How many months of Current Affairs should be covered? From where?
The 10 Steps of tackling Prelims 2023. How to maximize revision and minimize study materials?
Learn time management –
Before the exam– Studying more and effectively in less time.
Inside the exam hall. Most of the time, twisted questions force you to take more time to answer.
How to filter out and attempt easy questions in the first round quickly and move on to the next with which moderate to difficult questions? will be discussed thoroughly.
Time-Tested Elimination Techniques. How to use these techniques in sample questions? only generalized preparation is not enough. You have to be ready for the worst. Besides usual ordinary questions, you have to solve more or less offbeat questions. Remember, Offbeat questions require an offbeat approach and it gets 120+ in prelims for you. So, how to apply ‘Intelligent guessing’, ‘the way of thinking, and ‘Core common sense.
How to stay alert at the 5 worst mistakes areas, like unknown extremely factual questions, Random questions such as from sports in 2021, Questions from old current affairs, Ques. that are not directly from current affairs but inspired by current affairs, and Questions based on common sense such as questions in prelims-2021
How to avoid silly mistakes by using common sense to the plausibility of statements given. Usually, low-confident aspirants do not attempt these types of questions and overconfident ones make mistakes by overthinking.
How to solve bouncer kind of questions? Around 5 questions in every paper have been asked by UPSC about which you have no idea and might have not even come across while preparing but they can make or break your chance.
Santosh sir has scored above 140 twice in UPSC prelims and 120 plus in all 6 attempts. He has written all 6 mains and has appeared for Interviews 3 times. He has qualified for UPSC EPFO and BPSC 56-59th also. As the Prelims head at Civilsdaily, he has helped 15 out of 25 students clear the prelims examination this year.
What The Hindu mentioned about Civilsdaily Mentorship?
While hearing a petition seeking a ban on forced conversions, Division Bench judge of the apex court said, “The purpose of charity should not be conversion. Every charity or good work is welcome, but what is required to be considered is the intention,” The observation, loaded with significant implications, is to be considered in the light of the provisions of the Constitution relating to people’s fundamental right to freedom of religion, its legislative history and judicial interpretation.
Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion before the constitution of India: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, which was before the makers of the future Constitution for independent India had proclaimed: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance” [Article 18].
Extensive debate on religious freedom as a people’s right in the Constituent Assembly: Keeping this in mind, religious freedom as a people’s right was repeatedly debated in the Constituent Assembly. In cognisance of Christianity’s traditions of evangelism and proselytisation, it was to include the right to propagate religion.
Journey of a Right to freedom of religion before and after The Constitution
British rulers facilitated conversion to their religion: The British rulers of India, who were never shy of introducing measures to facilitate the conversion of others to their faith.
British rulers enacted Native Converts Marriage Dissolution Act in 1866: They had enacted in 1866 a Native Converts Marriage Dissolution Act to provide the facility of divorce to married Indians who converted to Christianity and were thereupon deserted by their non-converting spouses.
The Act recently dropped which was once thought to by the law commission of India: After Independence, the Law Commission of India recommended that this Act be revised to make it a general law on the effect of post-marriage change of religion, but the government did not take any action on it. The original Act remained in force till recently but was eventually dropped from the statute book by the Repealing and Amending Act of 2017.
Alerted by the missionaries’ princely states enforced anti conversion laws: Alerted by the missionaries’ evangelistic activities, several princely states of the pre-Independence era had enforced anti-conversion laws Raigarh, Udaipur and Bikaner among them.
Constitution Bench in case where state freedom of religion Acts was challenged: During 1967-68, state legislatures in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh enacted similar laws, both ostensibly titled as Freedom of Religion Act. Christian leaders lost no time in challenging their constitutional validity in the Supreme Court. Heading a Constitution Bench, Chief Justice of the time AN Ray, argued that converting people interfered with their religious freedom and held that Article 25 granted “not the right to convert another person to one’s own religion but (only) to transmit and spread one’s religion by an exposition of its tenets” .
The Constitution Bench decision inspired some other states to enact similar laws: Beginning with the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act 1978. Today there are such laws in about half of our states. Some of these have been either newly enacted or made more stringent, since the beginning of the present political dispensation in 2014. All of them prohibit converting people from one to another religion without their free will and, to indicate this, use various expressions like force, fraud, inducement and allurement.
Drafts on the conversion: While the first draft of the future Constitution proposed to restrain conversion except by one’s own free will, the second was to recognise the “right to preach and convert within limits compatible with public order and morality.”
Constitution recognised the right to propagate: Eventually, the Constitution recognised the right to propagate, along with freedom of conscience and the right to profess and practice, one’s religion as people’s fundamental right. Prima facie, individuals’ right to forsake their religion by birth and embrace another faith was integral to freedom of conscience
Supreme Courts observations regarding the right to propagate: As regards the propagation of religion, in two cases decided in 1954, the apex court observed that Article 25 covered every individual’s right “to propagate his religious views for the edification of others” (RP Gandhi) and that “it is the propagation of belief that is protected, no matter whether the propagation takes place in a church or monastery, or in a temple or parlour meeting” (Shirur Math).
Do you know this interesting news?
The Bombay High Court has recently held that the freedom of conscience of a person “includes a right to openly say that he does not believe in any religion”
Mahatma Gandhi’s view on freedom of religion
Mahatma Gandhi once said that “all faiths are equally true though equally imperfect”
He had pleaded that, instead of converting others to one’s own faith, “our innermost prayer should be that a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim and a Christian a better Christian” (Young India, 1924).
He had also once said: “If I had power and could legislate I should stop all proselytising” (Harijan, 1935).
Article 25(1) of the Constitution guarantees the “freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion”.
It is a right that guarantees a negative liberty — which means that the state shall ensure that there is no interference or obstacle to exercise this freedom.
However, like all fundamental rights, the state can restrict the right for grounds of public order, decency, morality, health and other state interests.
Conclusion
An observation made by the Supreme Court on “forced conversions” is to be considered in the light of the provisions of the Constitution relating to people’s fundamental right to freedom of religion, its legislative history and judicial interpretation and set the future roadmap to make. Pluralism and inclusiveness are characterized by religious freedom. Its purpose is to promote social harmony and diversity.
Mains question
Q. What is Fundamental right to freedom of religion? What was Mahatma Gandhi’s view on religion? How it is interpreted in the constitution of India?
Recently, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) hiked the repo rate by 35 basis points (bps) to 6.25 per cent with immediate effect.
The RBI policy rate is now at its highest level since August 2018 and this is the fifth rate hike by the central bank in this financial year.
In this context, this edition of the Burning Issue will talk about the Monetary policy of RBI, the tools used by it and its analysis.
What is monetary policy?
Monetary policy is the macroeconomic policy laid down by the central bank. It involves the management of money supply and interest rate and is the demand side economic policy used by the government of a country to achieve macroeconomic objectives like inflation, consumption, growth and liquidity.
Economic statistics such as GDP, the rate of inflation, and industry and sector-specific growth rates influence monetary policy strategy.
A central bank may revise the interest rates it charges to loan money to the nation’s banks. As rates rise or fall, financial institutions adjust rates for their customers such as businesses or home buyers.
Additionally, it may buy or sell government bonds, target foreign exchange rates, and revise the amount of cash that the banks are required to maintain as reserves.
Goals of Monetary Policy
Control Inflation: Contractionary monetary policy is used to target a high level of inflation and reduce the level of money circulating in the economy.
Reduce Unemployment: An expansionary monetary policy decreases unemployment as a higher money supply and attractive interest rates stimulate business activities and expansion of the job market.
Manage Exchange Rates: The exchange rates between domestic and foreign currencies can be affected by monetary policy. With an increase in the money supply, the domestic currency becomes cheaper than its foreign exchange.
Types of Monetary Policy: Expansionary and contractionary
Contractionary policy: A contractionary policy increases interest rates and limits the outstanding money supply to slow growth and decrease inflation, where the prices of goods and services in an economy rise and reduce the purchasing power of money.
Expansionary policy: During times of slowdown or a recession, an expansionary policy grows economic activity. By lowering interest rates, saving becomes less attractive, and consumer spending and borrowing increase.
Monetary policy in India and the Role of RBI
Aim of Monetary Policy: In India, the monetary policy of the Reserve Bank of India is aimed at managing the quantity of money to meet the requirements of different sectors of the economy and to increase the pace of economic growth.
Tools of Monetary Policy: The RBI implements the monetary policy through open market operations, bank rate policy, reserve system, credit control policy, moral persuasion and through many other instruments. Using any of these instruments will lead to changes in the interest rate or the money supply in the economy.
Types of Monetary policy: It can be expansionary and contractionary in nature. Increasing the money supply and reducing interest rates indicate an expansionary policy. The reverse of this is a contractionary monetary policy.
For instance, liquidity is important for an economy to spur growth. To maintain liquidity, the RBI is dependent on the monetary policy. By purchasing bonds through open market operations, the RBI introduces money into the system and reduces the interest rate.
Monetary policy tools of RBI
[A]Quantitative tools
Bank Rate Policy
The bank rate is the minimum rate at which the central bank of a country provides a loan to the commercial bank of the country.
Bank rate is also called discount rate because the central bank provides finance to commercial banks by rediscounting bills.
The RBI uses bank rate to control credit in the economy.
Open Market Operations
OMO are another important instrument of credit control.
OMO means the purchase and sale of securities by the RBI.
For instance, in an inflationary scenario, the RBI will start selling government securities, the selling of securities will reduce the money supply from the system (Since the buyer of the securities will pay for them in Rupee, hence currency from the system goes out), reduction in money supply will lead to a reduction in funds with the commercial banks, which further reduce their lending capability. A fall in lending thus contracts credit in the economy.
Cash Reserve Ratio
Banks in India are required to keep certain proportions of their deposits in the form of cash with themselves as reserves.
If the legal CRR is 10%, then the bank will have to keep Rs 100 as reserves against the deposit of Rs 1000.
Liquidity Adjustment Facility
LAF is a monetary policy instrument which allows commercial banks and primary dealers to borrow money through repurchase agreements or Repos/reverse repos.
LAF is used to aid banks in adjusting day-to-day fluctuations in liquidity.
RBI extends LAF facility only to commercial banks (excluding RRBs) and Primary dealers.
LAF allowed banks to park their excess money with the RBI in case of excess liquidity or to avail liquidity from the RBI at the time of deficit on an overnight basis against the collateral of government securities.
Repo and reverse repo
Repos or Repurchase Agreements is an instrument which allows banks to borrow money from the RBI to manage short-term needs of liquidity against the selling of government securities with an agreement to repurchase the same government securities at a predetermined date and rate. The rate at which the RBI lends to the banks is called Repo Rate.
Reverse Repo is an instrument which allows the RBI to borrow from the banks by lending government securities. The rate at which the Banks lend to the RBI is called Reverse Repo Rate.
Repo injects money into the system whereas Reverse Repo takes money out of the system.
The RBI increases the Repo Rate during the time of inflation and decreases the Repo Rate during the time of deflation and low growth.
Marginal Standing Facility
MSF is a new scheme announced by the RBI in the year 2011-12.
MSF is a penal rate at which banks can borrow money from the RBI over and above what they can borrow from the RBI under the LAF window.
MSF is a penal rate and is always fixed at a higher rate than the Repo rate.
The MSF would be a penal rate for banks, and the banks can borrow funds by pledging government securities within the limits of the statutory liquidity ratio.
The scheme has been introduced by RBI with the main aim of reducing volatility in the overnight lending rates in the inter-bank market and enabling smooth monetary transmission in the financial system.
Statutory Liquidity Ratio
SLR is the percentage of the deposits that the banks have to hold with themselves in highly liquid government securities.
SLR is one of the many arrows in the RBI’s monetary policy quiver. These are used, sometimes in isolation, sometimes in combination, to manage the money supply, interest rates and credit availability in the country.
The SLR is an important tool of monetary policy, and its primary aim is to ensure that banks always have enough liquidity (cash and cash equivalent securities) to honour depositors’ demands and that they don’t lend away all their funds.
Bank Base Rate
The Base Rate is the minimum interest rate of a bank below which it is not permissible to lend, except in some cases if allowed by the RBI.
BR is the minimum interest rate that a bank must charge because below the base rate it is not viable for the bank to lend.
The base rate, introduced with effect from 1st July 2011 by the Reserve Bank of India, is the new benchmark rate for lending operations of banks.
Thus, all categories of domestic rupee loans should be priced only with reference to the Base Rate.
[B] Qualitative Measure of the RBI
Fixing Margin Requirements
The margin refers to the “proportion of the loan amount which is not financed by the bank”. Or in other words, it is that part of a loan which a borrower has to raise in order to get finance for his purpose.
For example, If the RBI feels that more credit supply should be allocated to the agriculture sector, then it will reduce the margin and even 85-90 per cent loan can be given.
Consumer Credit Regulation
Under this method, consumer credit supply is regulated through hire-purchase and instalment sale of consumer goods. Under this method, the down payment, instalment amount, loan duration, etc., is fixed in advance. This can help in checking credit use and then inflation in a country.
Publicity
This is yet another method of selective credit control. Through it, Central Bank (RBI) publishes various reports stating what is good and what is bad in the system. This published information can help commercial banks to direct credit supply in the desired sectors. Through its weekly and monthly bulletins, the information is made public, and banks can use it for attaining goals of monetary policy.
Credit Rationing
Central Bank fixes credit amount to be granted. Credit is rationed by limiting the amount available for each commercial bank. This method controls even bill rediscounting. For certain purpose, the upper limit of credit can be fixed, and banks are told to stick to this limit. This can help in lowering banks credit exposure to unwanted sectors.
Moral Suasion
It implies pressure exerted by the RBI on the Indian banking system without any strict action for compliance with the rules. It is a suggestion to banks. It helps in restraining credit during inflationary periods. Commercial banks are informed about the expectations of the central bank through monetary policy. Under moral suasion, central banks can issue directives, guidelines and suggestions for commercial banks regarding reducing credit supply for speculative purposes.
New Monetary Policy Framework: The MPC and Inflation Targeting
What is Monetary Policy Agreement?
In 2015 The Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India signed a Monetary Policy Framework Agreement. The new monetary policy framework was formed following the recommendations of a committee headed by RBI Deputy Governor Urjit Patel.
The objective of monetary policy framework is to primarily maintain price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth.
As per the agreement, RBI would set the policy interest rates and would aim to bring inflation below 6 per cent by January 2016 and within 4 per cent with a band of (+/-) 2 per cent for 2016-17 and all subsequent years.
The central bank will be deemed to have missed its target if consumer inflation is at more than 6 percent or at less than 2 percent for three consecutive quarters starting in the 2015/16 fiscal year.
If the central bank misses the inflation target, it will send a report to the government citing reasons and remedial actions.
The central bank will also need to give an estimated time period within which it expects to return to the target level.
Significance of Monetary Policy Agreement
While the agreement gives a free hand to the RBI Governor to decide on the monetary policy measures to achieve the inflation target, it also requires the RBI to give out to the Central Government a report in case the target is missed for some time. Thus, it is a fine balance between autonomy and accountability.
The World over, the Central banks are moving towards an inflation targeting based criteria for managing monetary policy. The MPA is a step in that direction.
The MPA will put India into the League of Nations that followed a rule-based monetary policy mechanism.
Monetary policy committee
The monetary policy committee framework will replace the current system where the RBI governor and his internal team have complete control over monetary policy decisions. While a technical advisory committee advises the RBI on monetary policy decisions, the central bank is under no obligation to accept its recommendations.
The committee will have six members, with three appointed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the remaining nominated by an external selection committee. The RBI governor will have the casting vote in case of a tie.
According to the Finance Bill, the committee will consist of the RBI governor, the deputy governor in charge of monetary policy and one official nominated by the central bank.
The other three members will be appointed by the central government through a search committee.
This search committee will comprise the cabinet secretary, the secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, the RBI governor and three experts in the field of economics or banking as nominated by the central government.
The members of the MPC appointed by the search committee shall hold office for a period of four years and shall not be eligible for re-appointment.
The idea to set up a monetary policy committee was mooted by an RBI-appointed committee led by deputy governor Urjit Patel in 2014.
Assessment of the Monetary Policy of RBI
Achievements
The overall requirements of expanding economic activities have been met adequately.
In respect of priority sectors, for example, the objective of providing 40 percent of the bank credit has been met.
Again, the funding of several important development programmes for the weaker sections of the population has been reasonably satisfactory.
Even in respect of the control of inflation, the monetary policy has fared well. Overall, inflation has remained in the desired bracket except in a few instances.
Failures
The most unsatisfactory result has been in respect of the expansion of the money supply. The growth rate of money has been much more than the growth in real products.
Another shortcoming lies in the allocation of funds to various areas of sectors. The imbalances in credit allocation are more pronounced when one considers agriculture and small industry on the one hand and the large, organised industry and service sector on the other.
Agriculture continues to be dependent upon money lenders to a considerable extent for its credit needs. Very small industries, mostly in the unorganised sector, have virtually no institutional source for funds.
Also, there has been criticism that the new monetary policy framework has reduced RBI’s role to just inflation manager with little help from government fiscal policy.
Transmission of changes in policy rates is not fairly transferred by commercial banks to consumers. For example, In terms of the marginal cost lending rate (MCLR) by the banks (as per the data released by the RBI), the rate reduction was only 10 bps against the reduction of 250 bps by the RBI.
Conclusion
Thus, monetary policy holds an important role in a country’s growth and development.
Till now, the monetary policy has fared well but there is a need to enhance the transmission of changes made to it by RBI to get better outcomes and impacts on the economy.
The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, through the Public Distribution System (PDS), provides a crucial safety net for roughly 800 million people. Even critics of the PDS appreciated its services during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Background: COVID-19 lockdown and policy gaps in ensuring food security
Too many still excluded from the PDS: The humanitarian crisis resulting from the COVID-19 lockdown, made it apparent that too many were still excluded from the PDS.
Governments decision: In response to the humanitarian crisis, the Government made one sensible policy decision swiftly. It doubled the entitlements of the 800 million who were already covered by the PDS (from five kilograms per person per month, to 10kg). But that does nothing for those without ration cards.
National food security Act (NFSA)
Aims to provide subsidized food grains: The NFS Act, 2013 aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two-thirds of India’s 1.2 billion people.
Legal entitlements for existing food security programs: It was signed into law on 12 September 2013, retroactive to 5 July 2013. It converts into legal entitlements for existing food security programmes of the GoI.
Integrating various government schemes: It includes the Midday Meal Scheme, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme and the Public Distribution System (PDS). The Midday Meal Scheme and the ICDS are universal in nature whereas the PDS will reach about wo-thirds of the population (75% in rural areas and 50% in urban areas).
It recognizes maternity entitlement: Pregnant women, lactating mothers, and certain categories of children are eligible for daily free cereals.
Key provisions: The NFSA provides a legal right to persons belonging to “eligible households” to receive foodgrains at a subsidised price. It includes rice at Rs 3/kg, wheat at Rs 2/kg and coarse grain at Rs 1/kg under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). These are called central issue prices (CIPs).
How Public Distribution System (PDS) is determined?
PDS coverage is determined by Section 3(2) of the NFSA 2013.
It states that the entitlements of eligible households “shall extend up to seventy-five per cent of the rural population and up to fifty per cent of the urban population.”
Section 9 of NFSA required that the total number of persons to be covered “shall be calculated on the basis of the population estimates as per the census of which the relevant figures have been published.”
Coverage ratio is too low: The exclusion problem could be because the NFSA coverage ratios were too low to start with, or due to the ‘freeze’ in coverage in absolute terms (around 800 million).
Population increase has not been accounted: Between the last Census in 2011 and today, population increase has not been accounted for in determining the number of ration cards. No one could have anticipated that the 2021 Census would be postponed indefinitely. This means that even a decadal update has not happened.
Lack of sensitivity to understand the problem: There is no attempt at understanding or addressing the hardships of people who are deprived of the food security net that the PDS provides.
Court’s observation and a suggestion: Government inaction led to the matter being taken to the Supreme Court of India in the Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers case. The Court agreed that the prayer to increase coverage “seems to be genuine and justified”. It directed the Union of India to “come out with a formula and/or appropriate policy/scheme, if any, so that the benefits under NFSA are not restricted as per the census of 2011 and more and more needy persons/citizens get the benefit under the National Food Security Act”. Going further, the Court said that the Government could consider “projection of population increase” to resolve this issue.
Burdening the states: In its response, the Government attempts repeatedly to shift the blame to State governments. But States are responsible for identifying people for PDS ration cards, once they are given the numbers to be covered by the central government.
Way ahead
Several State governments have used their own resources this includes poor States such as Chhattisgarh and Odisha to expand coverage beyond the centrally determined quotas.
Robust procurement trends and a comfortable food stocks position are what make an expansion affordable.
Adjusting for population increase, as directed by the Supreme Court, will increase coverage by roughly 10% (from 800 million to 900 million).
Any sensible policy should have an in-built mechanism for updating coverage annually to account for population increase.
Conclusion
Instead of allowing the Government to delay this any further (the matter has been in Court since 2020), the Supreme Court should be firm, directing the Government to get on with apportioning the additional coverage of roughly 100 million across States, so that the States can start identifying new ration card beneficiaries.
Mains Question
Q. What is food security? What is National food security Act? There is number some problems for expanding food security net through PDS. Analyse and suggest way forward.
The trade deficit, difference between import and exports, between India and China has touched $51.5 billion during April-October this fiscal.
Widening deficit
The deficit during 2021-22 had jumped to $73.31 billion as compared to $44.03 billion in 2020-21.
According to the data, imports during April-October this fiscal stood at $60.27 billion, while exports aggregated at $8.77 billion.
The merchandise exports from India to China had increased from $11.93 billion in 2014-15 to $21.26 billion in 2021-22.
India-China bilateral trade
In 2021, annual two-way trade crossed $100 billion for the first time, reaching $125.6 billion, with India’s imports accounting for $97.5 billion, pegging the imbalance at close to $70 billion.
This is certainly a healthy deficit compared to the industrial development in both nations.
A quick backgrounder
Trade ties began to boom since the early 2000s.
This was driven largely by India’s imports of Chinese machinery and other equipment.
It rose up from $3 billion in the year 2000 to $42 billion in 2008, the year China became India’s largest trading partner.
The Hindi-Chini buy buy
A third of machinery and almost two-fifths of organic chemicals that India purchases from the world come from China.
Automotive parts and fertilizers are other items where China’s share in India’s import is more than 25 per cent.
Several of these products are used by Indian manufacturers in the production of finished goods, thus thoroughly integrating China in India’s manufacturing supply chain.
For instance India sources close to 90 per cent of certain mobile phone parts from China.
India’s export to China
Even as an export market, China is a major partner for India.
China is the third-largest destination for Indian shipments.
At the same time, India only accounts for a little over two percent of China’s total exports, according to the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO).
Should we worry about this?
Trade deficits/surpluses are just accounting exercises and having a trade deficit against a country doesn’t make the domestic economy weaker or worse off.
In this light, India’s trade imbalance with China should not be viewed in isolation.
For instance, pharmaceuticals that India exports to the world require ingredients that are imported from China.
Chinese imports of Indian seafood are one area that has recently shown robust growth and carries scope to grow in future.
So, having a trade deficit is good?
Of course NOT. Running persistent trade deficits across all countries raises two main issues.
Availability of foreign exchange reserves to “buy” the imports.
Lack of domestic capacity to produce most efficiently.
Can we ban trade with China?
Ans.Certainly NOT!
It will hurt the Indian poor the most: This is because the poor are more price-sensitive. For instance, if Chinese TVs were replaced by either costlier Indian TVs or less efficient ones, unlike poor, richer Indians may buy the costlier option.
It will punish Indian producers and exporters: Several businesses in India import intermediate goods and raw materials, which, in turn, are used to create final goods — both for the domestic Indian market as well as the global market (as Indian exports).
Pharma sector could be worst hit: For instance, of the nearly $3.6 billion worth of ingredients that Indian drug-makers import to manufacture several essential medicines, China catered to around 68 percent.
Banwill barely hurt China: According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) data for 2018, 15.3% of India’s imports are from China, and 5.1% of India’s exports go to China.
Chinese money funds Indian unicorns: India and China have also become increasingly integrated in recent years. Chinese money, for instance, has penetrated India’s technology sector, with companies like Alibaba and Tencent strategically pumping in billions of dollars into Indian startups such as Zomato, Paytm, Big Basket and Ola.
India will lose policy credibility: It has also been suggested that India should renege on existing contracts with China. This can be detrimental to India’s effort to attract foreign investment.
China is our Frenemy. Here is why.
The first thing to understand is that turning a border dispute into a trade war is unlikely to solve the border dispute.
Worse, given India and China’s position in both global trades as well as relative to each other, this trade war will hurt India far more than China.
Again, these measures will be most poorly timed since the Indian economy is already at its weakest point ever — facing a sharp GDP contraction.
Way forward
In the long term, under the banner of self-reliance, India must develop its domestic capabilities and acquire a higher share of global trade by raising its competitiveness.
But no country is completely self-sufficient and that is why trade is such a fantastic idea.
For the long run, a more effective strategy needs to be built to provide an ecosystem that addresses the cost disability of Indian manufacturing leading to such imports.
CONTEXT: The 17th Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) set ten-point priorities of national action under the Singapore Declaration.
Singapore Declaration
It seeks to draw attention for the member countries to deal with the issue of dwindling wages of workers, inflation and unemployment.
It was adopted by the delegates representing governments, employers and workers’ governments, employers and workers in the regions.
Members agreed that social dialogue is essential to address labour market challenges and finding solutions in crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and economic uncertainty.
Key point priorities
Ensure labour protection for all through the promotion of freedom of association
Recognition of the right to collective bargaining, including for workers in vulnerable situations and workers in the informal economy, as enabling rights for decent work
Closing gender gaps, increase women’s labour force participation, promote equal pay for work of equal value, balance work and responsibilities, and promoting women’s leadership.
Develop and implement inclusive labour market programmes and policies that support life transitions and demographic shifts.
Pursue collective and determined efforts to promote and accelerate a smooth and sustained transition from the informal to formal economy
Strengthen governance frameworks and respect for freedom of association for migrant workers
Strengthen the foundation for social and employment protection and resilience
Expanding social protection to all workers, guaranteeing universal access to comprehensive, adequate and sustainable social protection for all
The ISRO successfully conducted test for credible next-generation air-breathing scramjet engines, in order to launch satellites in a predetermined orbit at a low cost.
What is a jet engine?
A jet engine is a machine that converts energy-rich, liquid fuel into a powerful pushing force called thrust.
The thrust from one or more engines pushes a plane forward, forcing air past its scientifically shaped wings to create an upward force called lift that powers it into the sky.
Ramjet vs. Scramjet Engine
Both scramjet and Ramjet are types of jet engines.
A ramjet is an air breathing jet engine which is usually associated with supersonic transport.
Ramjets can start at supersonic speeds only, so as a result they cannot be started at zero velocity and cannot produce thrust as there is a lack of airspeed.
Hence assisted take off flights or rockets are needed to or accelerate it to a supersonic speed from which it starts producing thrust.
This makes ramjet engine to be efficient only at supersonic speeds as it can accelerate to speeds of about Mach 6.
Ramjet has revolutionized Rocket Propulsion and Missile Technology over the years.
How different is Scramjet?
The Scramjet or the Supersonic Combustion Ramjet is a further complex model and is efficient at hypersonic speeds, usually upwards of Mach 6.
They do not have any moving parts to compress the air as the air entering is already at high pressure.
Scramjets have a very similar working to that of the ramjet except the fact that combustion also takes place at supersonic speed.
This means that the air being compressed does not slow down as it enters the combustion chamber.
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