Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Power of the ECI
Mains level: Paper 2- Comparing the powers of the Election Commission of India to its counterpart in the U.S.
In the recently concluded presidential election in the U.S., the delay in announcing the result and issue of denial of the election results by the incumbent has brought into focus the role played by flaws in the Americal democratic system in the conduct of the election. This article compares the powers of the elections bodies in the U.S. and India.
Powers of ECI
- Indian Constitution has given the ECI enormous power to be exercised during the course of elections, and strictly on other election-related matters.
- By virtue of being the custodian of the electoral roll, all matters related to keeping the roll updated, fall under the ECI’s domain.
- Even the higher judiciary does not interfere during the course of the election process.
- Our Constitution’s fathers decided to limit the role of the judiciary in India to the post-election period, when election petitions may be filed.
- This was done to avoid the impeding of the election process and delay election results interminably.
Comparing the powers
- The U.S. Federal Election Commission has a much narrower mandate than its Indian equivalent-Election Commission of India.
- The Federal Election Commission was established comparatively recently — 1975, with the special mandate to regulate campaign finance issues.
- As a watchdog, it is meant to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the law regarding campaign contributions, and oversee public funding of the presidential election.
- The Federal Election Commission is led by six Commissioners.
- These six posts are supposed to be equally shared by Democrats and Republicans, and too have to be confirmed by the Senate.
- This leads to decision making divided on partisan lines.
What India can learn From the election process in the U.S.
- In the 2016 U.S. election, almost a quarter of the votes counted arose from postal and early balloting.
- In India we have confined postal ballots to only a few categories, of largely government staff (for example those on election duty) as well as the police or armed forces.
- In these difficult times of the novel coronavirus pandemic, we need to widen this base to include all senior citizens and anyone else who may find it convenient to cast their vote early.
Consider the question “Powers of the Election Commission of India are wider when compared with its counterpart in the U.S. In light of this, compare the powers of the two bodies and how these wide powers have enabled smooth power transfers in India.”
Conclusion
In its functioning, Election Commission of India has broad powers as compared to its counterpart in the U.S. which has helped India see a smooth power transfer from the first election in India in 1951-52 and every single election since.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST
Mains level: Paper 2- Testing the legitimacy of tax
The article deals with the issue of a petition challenging the imposition of 5% GST on mobility aids used by disabled citizens.
Background
- The petitioner, in Nipun Malhotra vs. Union of India, argued in Supreme Court that the tax imposed on mobility aids used by disabled citizenswas patently discriminatory.
- A decision to impose a tax, the Court said, was a matter of policy over which the judiciary ought not to ordinarily interfere.
- In adjourning the case, it suggested that the petitioner exhaust his options by submitting his grievances to the GST Council, which is the governing body responsible for determining which products are taxed, and at what rate.
Should the Courts test the legitimacy of the tax
- It might be keen to ensure that the judiciary does not sit on judgment over matters that fall within the domain of legislative and executive competence.
- There is nothing inherently distinct about taxing laws; they are in no way plenary and unamenable to judicial review.
- Quite to the contrary, taxes have a direct bearing on how society is arranged.
- The nature and rate of tax imposed on a product can impinge both on a person’s freedom and on a person’s right to be treated with equal care and concern.
- Therefore, it ought to be well within an independent judiciary’s province — as the top courts in Canada and Colombia, among others, have recently held — to examine whether or not an imposition of a tax violates a fundamental right.
Why government impose tax on mobility aids?
- Until the advent of the GST, mobility aids were almost entirely immune from indirect taxes.
- In virtually every State, exemptions were granted on the payment of value-added-tax on such goods.
- However, under GST 18% tax was imposed on these devices and subsequently reduced to 5%.
- The government claims that it cannot relieve mobility aids from taxation, because to do so will disincentivise domestic manufacturers.
- Domestic manufacturers can claim “input tax credit” on taxes paid on raw material in the process of manufacturing when it remits the levy collected from the eventual purchaser of the product.
- The State’s argument is that in the absence of a levy of GST on the final product, the manufacturer will be burdened with input taxes.
- Since it cannot claim any credit for those taxes paid, the prices of the final product would have to be concomitantly higher.
- As a result, the manufacturer will be placed in a relative position of disadvantage to foreign makers.
Issues with the government’s argument
- This argument, though, suffers from at least two fallacies. First, a reading of the various notifications issued by the GST Council shows that many other products that are essential to human needs are exempt from tax.
- Second, that the grant of an exemption in cases such as these would disentitle manufacturers from claiming input tax credit is a matter of legislative design.
Way forward
- Parliament can find other ways to ensure that domestic manufacturers are granted credit for the taxes that they pay on inputs.
- A decision taken on exempting goods from taxation is a matter of classification.
- Given that the classification rests on a state of disability, it must be seen, on any sensible consideration of our equality jurisprudence, as, at least facially, inequitable.
- The onus must, therefore, rest on the government to show the Court that it had cogent reasons for treating these goods as distinct from other commodities that are exempt from tax.
- A failure to discharge this onus ought to render the levy illegitimate.
- The GST Council can take a leaf out of the books of Canada and Australia, and grant a complete exemption on the levy imposed on mobility aids.
Conclusion
It is time we recognised that an unreasonable levy can deeply compromise fundamental human needs. To free taxing statutes from the ramparts of the Constitution is to risk the entrenching of inequality.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indo-Pacific construct
Mains level: Paper 2- India's Indo-Pacific vision
Where do we geographically place the Indo-Pacific?
- Term “Indo-Pacific” has come into prominence in the past decade.
- India has used it in joint statements with a series of partner countries, including but not limited to the United States, Australia, France, Indonesia, Japan, and of course the United Kingdom.
- It figures in meetings with our ASEAN and has helped advance the Quad consultations.
- Indian Foreign Ministry has recently set up an Indo-Pacific Division as well as an Oceania Division a sign of India’s commitment to this critical geography.
- This has encouraged other countries to perceive and define the region in its full extent.
- For India, the Indo-Pacific is that vast maritime space stretching from the western coast of North America to the eastern shores of Africa.
- Today, more and more countries are aligning their definition of the Indo-Pacific with Indias.
Historical background
- During the Cold War, the Indo-Pacific was divided into different spheres of influence and military theatres.
- Whether it was the monsoon winds– or our maritime and trading history, we found it impossible to see the Horn of Africa and the Straits of Malacca on the other as disconnected.
- The first for this is that the Indian peninsula, which thrusts into the Indian Ocean and gives us two magnificent coasts and near limitless maritime horizons to both our east and our west.
- Monks and merchants, culture and cargo have travelled from India on those waters, to our east, west and south.
- India’s great religious traditions, such as Buddhism, spread far and wide in the Indo-Pacific.
- These experiences are our past and are our future; these experiences determine our concept of the Indo-Pacific.
Why is the Indo-Pacific crucial?
- The interconnectedness of the Indo-Pacific is finally coming into full play.
- A motivating factor is the region’s emergence as a driver of international trade and well-being.
- The Indo-Pacific ocean system carries an estimated 65 per cent of world trade and contributes 60 per cent of global GDP.
- Ninety per cent of India’s international trade travels on its waters.
- For us, and for many others, the shift in the economic trajectory from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific has been hugely consequential.
- The rise of China and the imperative for a global rebalancing have added to the mix.
- A rules-based international order is achievable only with a rules-based Indo-Pacific.
India’s Indo-Pacific strategy
- India’s Indo-Pacific strategy was enunciated in 2018 as the SAGAR doctrine.
- SAGAR is an acronym for “Security and Growth for All in the Region”.
- This aspiration depends on securing end-to-end supply chains in the region; no disproportionate dependence on a single country; and ensuring prosperity for all stakeholder nations.
- An Indo-Pacific guided by norms and governed by rules, with freedom of navigation, open connectivity, and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states, is an article of faith for India.
- Using this Initiative, India plans to support the building of a rules-based regional architecture resting on seven pillars. These are:1) Maritime security
2) Maritime ecology
3) Maritime resources
4) Capacity building and resource sharing
5) Disaster risk reduction and management
6) Science, technology and academic cooperation
7) Trade connectivity and maritime transport
- We have sought to strengthen security and freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific by becoming a net security provider – in the Gulf of Aden.
- Sharing what we can, in equipment, training and exercises, we have built relationships with partner countries across the region.
- In the past six years, India has provided coastal surveillance radar systems to half a dozen nations – Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
- All of these countries also use Indian patrol boats, as do Mozambique and Tanzania.
- Mobile training teams have been deputed to 11 countries.
- Located just outside New Delhi, the Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre for the Indian Ocean Region has enhanced maritime domain awareness among partner countries.
- India has also promoted and contributed to infrastructure, connectivity, economic projects and supply chains in the region.
Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
- Notable humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) missions in the Indo-Pacific in recent years have included Operation Rahat in Yemen in 2015.
- Whether it was the cyclone in Sri Lanka in 2016 or deaths and large-scale displacement of people that occurred in Madagascar in January this year, Indian assistance and an Indian ship have never been far away.
- The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)is intrinsic to India’s regional and global commitment to taking on climate change.
Conclusion
Whatever the navigation map, the fact that the Indo-Pacific is the 21st century’s locus of political and security concerns and competition, of growth and development, and of technology incubation and innovation is indisputable.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAPFs
Mains level: Paper 3- Role of CAPFs in disaster management.
The article emphasises the role played by the CAPFs in dealing with the disasters.
Dealing with the disasters
- When disaster strikes our country, be it natural or man-made, the government summons the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) to carry out the task of overcoming the disaster.
- The CAPFs help in carrying out rescue and relief operations, and also mitigates the pains and problems arising out of the disaster.
Role played by CAPFS during Covid
- CAPFs comprise the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal, Assam Rifles and the ITBP.
- Even before the country got to know about the COVID-19, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) had already set up its 600-bed quarantine centre in Chawla on the outskirts of New Delhi.
- The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had roped in specialists from the Safdarjung Hospital to coordinate with ITBP officials.
- Doctors and paramedical personnel of other CAPFs were also roped in.
- The expertise acquired by ITBP personnel and the Standard Operating Procedure prepared by the ITBP came handy for the States and other police forces in establishing their own quarantine centres and COVID-19 hospitals.
Role of NDRF during Covid-19
- NDRF personnel are wholly drawn from the CAPFs.
- So, they form a good reserve of trained personnel when they go back to their parent force after their stint with NDRF.
- With 12 battalions of the NDRF— each comprising 1,149 personnel — spread across the country, its experts have the core competency to tackle biological disasters like COVID-19.
- Such personnel can be deployed at quarantines centres after short-term courses.
- A proposal mooted by NITI Aayog last year, to conduct a bridge course for dentists to render them eligible for the MBBS degree, could be revived, and such doctors could be on stand-by to help in such emergency crises.
Conclusion
It is these CAPF personnel who give a semblance of existence of government administration even in the remotest corners of the country. Their versatile experience can be utilised to the nation’s advantage.
B2BASICS:
CAPF
The Central Armed Police Forces refers to uniform nomenclature of five security forces in India under the authority of Ministry of Home Affairs. Their role is to defend the national interest mainly against the internal threats.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Equity in education and impact of digital education on it
Fairness and inclusiveness are two important aspects of education system. Growing shift toward digital education in India has implications for these two aspects. The article suggests ways to make the education system fair and inclusive.
Knowledge economy in India
- The new National Education Policy (NEP) as well as other factors have lately brightened up education landscape in India..
- The rise of education technology (ed-tech) incorporating VR, AR, ‘gamification’, 3D immersive learning, etc, is contributing to the knowledge economy’s potential for large market size, calling for requisite policy support.
Barriers to equity in education
- The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) defines two dimensions of equity in education.
- First is “fairness”, which means ensuring that personal and social circumstances do not prevent students from achieving their academic potential.
- The second is “inclusion”, which means setting a basic minimum standard for education that is shared by all students regardless of their background.
- The barriers that make equity difficult to foster in India are varied and complex.
Loss of learning during Covid pandemic
- The latest Annual State of Education Report (ASER) reveals that 20% of rural students lacked textbooks.
- Only one in ten students had access to online classes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The Survey provides a glimpse into the levels of learning loss that students in rural India, particularly in states like Bihar, West Bengal, UP, and Rajasthan, are suffering, resulting in sharp digital divides in education.
- Unless remedied with urgency, the digital split may disrupt learning, and jeopardise our hard-won gains resulting in large scale school drop-outs, particularly of adolescent girls.
How to remove barriers to equity?
- To remove these barriers we need to look at several aspects like monetary resources, academic standards, academic content and support.
- Apart from inequality in internet access and access to devices, even the quality of connection and related services and subscription fees exacerbate the digital divide.
- For education to be availed as a social good, access at an affordable cost and reasonable quality is a precondition.
- The availability of content in vernacular languages is yet another issue.
- In digital education along with demand-side issues, supply-side issues need fixing, such as training of teachers in ICT, new learning devices and handling the evolved curriculum.
- Teachers and academic institutions need to ensure that the content they are using is lucid, appropriate, fact-based and relevant.
- Access to education loans from banks and financial institutions are a great support in the cause of education, particularly higher education.
- Education is on the Concurrent List. A cooperative and collaborative spirit will thus be critical to realise the goals.
- The Centre has a task well cut for building consensus on NEP2020.
Consider the question “Fainess and inclusiveness are two important dimensions of equity that should be pursued by any education system. However, push towards digital educations threatens these two dimensions of the education system in India. Comment”
Conclusion
With strong corporate commitment, states’ support, backed by strong policy push and intent by the Centre, and value addition by other stakeholders, the roadblocks on the path of equity and inclusiveness in education, though daunting, could be addressed.
Source-
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/equity-in-education-matters/2121998/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hydrogen fuel cell, H-CNG
Mains level: Paper 3- Adoption of hydrogen as vehicular fuel
Transport sector has been a major contributor of Green House Gases in India. Moving towards cleaner fuels brings to fore two options battery-operated electric vehicle (EV) and hydrogen fuel cell EV. The article compares the two.
Vehicular emission and steps taken to deal with it
- The transport sector in India contributes one-third of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, within which the lion’s share is that of road transport.
- The government has made concerted efforts to tackle vehicular emissions with policies steps and programmes such as the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME I) scheme, FAME II, tax benefits, etc.
Blending hydrogen
- Typically, hydrogen can be produced in one of three ways, i.e., from fossil fuels (grey hydrogen), through carbon capture utilisation & storage (CCUS) application and fossil fuels (blue hydrogen), or by using renewable energy (green hydrogen).
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited has patented a technology that produces H-CNG (18% hydrogen in CNG) directly from natural gas, without having to undertake expensive conventional blending.
- This compact blending process provides a 22% reduction in cost as compared to conventional blending.
- In comparison to CNG, H-CNG allows for a 70% reduction in carbon monoxide emissions and a 25% reduction in hydrocarbon emissions.
- The new H-CNG technology requires only minor tweaks in the current design of CNG buses.
- However, the issue is that the Hydrogen-spiked CNG is still being produced from natural gas-a fossil fuel.
Electric vehicle Vs. Fuel cell
- From a commercial viability standpoint, two cleaner fuel alternatives come to mind—battery-operated electric vehicles (BEV) and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV).
- Hydrogen FCEVs has reduced refuelling time (5 minutes versus 30-40 minutes with fast charges), higher energy density, longer range, etc.
- However, one needs to focus on is the entire life cycle of these vehicles as opposed to restricting the analysis to just the carbon-free tailpipe emissions.
- According to a report by Deloitte (2020) on hydrogen and fuel cells, the lifecycle GHG emissions from hydrogen FCEVs ranges between 130-230 g CO2e per km.
- The lower end of the range depicts the case of hydrogen production from renewables while the higher end reflects the case of hydrogen production from natural gas.
- The corresponding life cycles GHG emissions for BEV and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles range between 160-250 g CO2e and 180-270 g CO2e respectively.
- The cost of lithium ion-based battery-operated vehicles has been reducing while hydrogen fuel cell technology is relatively quite expensive.
- A hydrogen-run vehicle achieves an energy efficiency rate of 25-35% (roughly 45% of energy is lost during the electrolysis process alone).
Way forward
- Given that these are early days for FCEV, one can be hopeful that we will be able to achieve economies of scale and attain cost reductions.
- Hydrogen Council (2020) on hydrogen cost competitiveness that states scaling up and augmenting fuel cell production from 10,000 to 200,000 units can deliver a 45% reduction in the cost per unit.
- Similarly, the versatility of hydrogen allows for complementarity across its numerous applications.
- Moreover, based on the numbers quoted by this report, fuel cell stacks for passenger vehicles are expected to exhibit learning rates of 17% in the coming future.
- The corresponding figures for commercial vehicles stand at 11%.
- Efforts are underway in India, and the research activities pertaining to hydrogen have been compiled and recently released in the form of a country status report.
- In their quest for becoming carbon neutral by 2035, Reliance Industries plan to replace transportation fuels with hydrogen and clean electricity.
- Similarly, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is considering setting up a green hydrogen production facility in Andhra Pradesh.
- The ministry of road transport and highways issued a notification proposing amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (1989) to incorporate safety standards for hydrogen fuel cell technology vehicles.
- As per a policy brief issued by TERI, demand for hydrogen in India is expected to increase 3-10 fold by 2050.
Consider the question “What are the benefits and challenges in the adoption of hydrogen as vehicular fuel?”
Conclusion
Against this backdrop, the future of hydrogen, particularly green hydrogen, looks promising in India.
Source:-
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/fuelling-a-green-future/2121991/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-U.S. relations and implications of the Presidential elections in the U.S.
The voting trend in the U.S. presidential election indicates significant support for the policies pursued by President Trump. This could impact the policies the next administration pursues.
Why U.S. election matters for the world
- The world still has need for American leadership.
- It remains the world’s largest net provider of global public goods.
- It is the lynchpin of the global multilateral system.
- If Joe Biden wins, it is possible that America will re-engage with dignity and restore mutual respect in its relations with allies and partners, beginning with the trans-Atlantic alliance.
- However, the Trump Americans, who are the new political base, will still shape American policy irrespective of who the president is.
‘America first’ is here to stay
- The American people believe that their education, employment and retirement have been impacted by the immigration, outsourcing and liberal trade policies of past administrations.
- Trump America does not want more migrants, it will not support the outsourcing of jobs at the cost of their own.
- It wants a fair deal on trade that does not allow cheaper imports to put small American businesses out of business.
- Even a Biden administration cannot return America back to the days of open borders and free trade.
- It might relax some categories of work-visas, but it cannot return to the time when outsourcing was the preferred option for American companies.
- It might re-engage with the World Trade Organisation but it cannot tear down the trade barriers that Trump has erected in the name of Make in America.
Foreign policy of next administration
- The Trump Americans do not wish to spend any more taxpayer dollars on foreign wars and they want their boys and girls to come home.
- They think America’s allies are not carrying their weight and are unfairly living off American contributions.
- They want their allies and partners to take greater responsibility for peace and security.
- Biden’s supporters hope that he can reverse the abdication of American global leadership and renew alliances, but as president he may find it difficult to go against the Trump Americans on issues like China, Iran and climate change, without endangering the Democratic Party’s long-term interests.
- And if Trump is re-elected as the president, it will only be because of his core voter base and it will strengthen his resolve.
Implications for the world
- Whether or not America withdraws from the world, American leadership, as we know it, might be over.
- America will become more transactional and less generous.
- Common values like democracy or multipolarity may be of lesser importance in America’s scheme of things.
- Whether it is Trump or Biden, the Sino-US relationship will remain complicated and rivalrous.
- Whether it is Trump or Biden, the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran cannot be restored.
- Whether it is Trump or Biden, American troops will soon be gone from Afghanistan.
- There will be less willingness to consider emerging economies as deserving beneficiaries of concessional arrangements.
- A Biden presidency might also mean a more critical look at the record of not just authoritarian states but also democracies on issues like labour, environment and non-proliferation.
Implications for India
- President Trump has been good for India in terms of foreign policy, less so in terms of economic policy.
- But Delhi should equally be prepared for the Trump administration to ratchet up pressure on trade and to tighten rules on immigration.
- With Biden, India and the US might return to a more balanced re-engagement on trade and immigration, but should be prepared for a more accommodative policy on both Pakistan and China than Trump’s.
Conclusion
Whoever is the next occupant of the White House, the way Americans voted on November 3 will shape American policy and politics for years to come.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Productivity of economy
Mains level: Paper 3- Reforms, productivity and technology to fix the problems of economy
The article discusses the three fundamentals which need an examination to fix the issues faced by the economy.
Re-examining the fundamentals
- India has an incomes crisis: incomes of people in the lower half of the pyramid are too low.
- The solutions economists propose are: free up markets, improve productivity, and apply technology.
- These fundamentals of economics must be re-examined when applied to human work.
Three solutions and issues with them
1) Freeing up the markets
- It is suggested that markets should be freed up for agricultural products so that farmers can get higher prices; and freed up for labour to attract investments.
- Without adequate incomes, people cannot be a good market for businesses.
- In fact, it is the inadequate growth of incomes that has caused a slump in investments.
- Ironically, the purpose of freeing up markets for labour is to reduce the burden of wage costs on investors just when wages and the size of markets must be increased.
2) Increasing productivity
- Productivity is a ratio of an input in the denominator and an output in the numerator.
- The larger the output that is produced with a unit of input, the higher the productivity of the system.
- Improvement of ‘productivity’ is key to economic progress.
- Economists generally use labour productivity as a universal measure of the productivity of an economy.
- Humans are the only ‘appreciating assets’ an enterprise has. They can improve their own abilities.
- The values of machines and buildings depreciate over time, as any accountant knows.
- Whereas human beings develop when they are treated with respect, and are provided with environments to learn.
- For capital-scarce and human resource-abundant countries, such as many developing countries, the correct ratio of productivity is output per unit of capital.
- This must be the driver of business as well as national strategies.
- This was the strategy of ‘Japan Inc.’ to make Japan an industrial powerhouse.
- This was E.F. Schumacher’s insight also.
3) Use of technology
- Schumacher, best known for his seminal idea ‘small is beautiful’ understood where capitalism powered with technology would be heading.
- In his essay he wrote: “If we define the level of technology in terms of ‘equipment cost per work-place’, we can call the indigenous technology of a typical developing country (symbolically speaking) a £1-technology, while that of the modern West could be called a £1,000-technology.
- The current attempt of the ‘developing ‘countries, supported by foreign aid, to infiltrate the £1,000-technology into their economies inevitably kills off the £1-technolgy at an alarming rate.
- This results in destroying traditional workplaces at a much faster rate than modern workplaces can be created and producing the ‘dual economy’ with its attendant evils of mass unemployment and mass migration.
- Schumacher had warned there was a malaise brewing beneath the drive to ‘Westernise’ and ‘technologise’ economies.
Way forward: Social contract between society and workers
- Workers provide the economy with the products and services it needs.
- In return, society and the economy must create conditions whereby workers are treated with dignity and can earn adequate incomes.
- Good jobs require good contracts between workers and their employers.
- Therefore, the government should create a good society for all citizens, must regulate contracts between those who engage people to do work for their enterprises, even in the gig economy.
- Goverment should push innovation in socially more beneficial directions to augment rather than replace less skilled workers.
Conclusion
The power balance must shift. Small enterprises and workers must combine into larger associations, in new forms, using technology, to tilt reforms towards their needs and their rights.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST provisions
Mains level: Paper 2- Declining financial heath of the States
The financial health of the States has been declining in the last several years. The article explains the reasons and its implications for the States.
Role of States in development
- State governments drive a majority of the country’s development programmes.
- Greater numbers of people depend on these programmes for their livelihood, development, welfare and security.
- States need resources to deliver these responsibilities and aspirations.
Factors responsible for declining discal capacity of the States
1) Declining devolution to State
- Finance Commissions recommend the share of States in the taxes raised by the Union government and recommendations are normally adhered to.
- The year 2014-15 commenced with a shock: actual devolution was 14% less than the Finance Commission’s projection.
- Between 2014-15 and 2019-20, the States got ₹7,97,549 crore less than what was projected by the Finance Commission.
2) Cess and surcharge
- Various cesses and surcharges levied by the Union government are retained fully by it, they do not go into the divisible pool.
- This allows the Centre to raise revenues, yet not share them with the States.
- Hence, the Union government imposes or increases cesses and surcharges instead of taxes wherever possible and, in some cases, even replaces taxes with cesses and surcharges.
- As a result, the States lose out on their share.
- Between 2014-15 and 2019-20, cesses and surcharges soared from 9.3% to 15% of the gross tax revenue of the Union government.
- This systematic rise ensures that the revenue that is fully retained by the Union government increases at the cost of the revenue that is shared with the States.
- This government has exploited this route to reduce the size of the divisible pool.
3) GST shortfall
- Shortfalls have been persistent and growing from the inception of GST.
- Compensations have been paid from the GST cess revenue.
- GST cesses are levied on luxury or sin goods on top of the GST.
- GST compensation will end with 2021-22. But cesses will continue.
- With the abnormal exception of this year, the years ahead will generate similar or more cess revenue.
- Hence, many States have been insisting outside and inside the GST Council that the Union government should borrow this year’s GST shortfall in full and release it to the States.
- The Union government will not have to pay a rupee of this debt or interest.
- The entire loan can be repaid out of the assured cess revenue that will continue to accrue beyond 2022.
- Of the nearly ₹3 lakh crore GST shortfall to the States, the Centre will only compensate ₹1.8 lakh crore.
- The States will not get the remaining ₹1.2 lakh crore this year.
- In fact, it flies against the need of the hour to revive the economy.
- Governments ought to spend money this year to stimulate demand.
4) Declining grants from the Centre
- Central grants are also likely to drop significantly this year.
- For instance,₹31,570 crore was allocated as annual grants to Karnataka.
- Actual grants may be down to ₹17,372 crore.
Implications for the States
- To overcome such extreme blows to their finances and discharge their welfare and development responsibilities, the States are now forced to resort to colossal borrowings.
- Repayment burden will overwhelm State budgets for several years.
- The fall in funds for development and welfare programmes will adversely impact the livelihoods of crores of Indians.
- The economic growth potential cannot be fully realised.
- Adverse consequences will be felt in per capita income, human resource development and poverty.
- This is a negative sum game.
5) Loss of financial autonomy due to GST
Consider the question “What are the reasons for the declining financial health of the States in India? What are the implications for the States? Suggest the ways to deal with the issue.”
Conclusion
States are at the forefront of development and generation of opportunities and growth. Strong States lead to a stronger India. The systematic weakening of States serves neither federalism nor national interest.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with the secularism in France
The article analyses the secularism in France and its its implications for the French society.
Education about secularism in France
- In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, state school teachers were responsible for converting young people in rural France away from the heavy hand of Catholic dogma, and they spearheaded efforts to “educate” and “civilise” indigenous peoples in the French colonies.
- In recent decades, teachers have been charged with trying to “integrate” France’s myriad ethnic minority communities.
- Of the many things that teachers are expected to do, one of the most important is to embody the principles of laïcité.
- Often translated as ‘secularism’, laïcité is better understood as a project of social cohesion and a key component of French citizenship.
- It encompass the formal separation of Church and State, but also the evacuation of religious values from the public space and their replacement with secular values such as liberty, equality, and fraternity.
How should France respond to terrorist attacks in name of Islam
1) Compromise
- This compromise would involve acknowledging that laïcité alone cannot fix the country’s social and political problems.
- It would also require the French state to recognise that France has — almost without realising it — become part of the Muslim world.
- It cannot stand apart from conflicts over religious practice that have affected countries with much larger Muslim populations, from Morocco to Indonesia.
2) Emphasize the French values
- Another way would be to double down on French “values”.
- This is the path that President Emmanuel Macron has chosen.
- He and his cabinet have spent a lot of time in recent weeks emphasising the importance of laïcité and denouncing all those who are seen to threaten it.
- But this strategy is a risky one.
- For a start, it is almost guaranteed to elicit a hostile response from leaders of Muslim-majority countries, many of whom are keen to find an international issue that can distract from their own domestic problems.
Conclusion
So, while it might seem like a good strategy to use the idea of laïcité as a shield against an amorphous Muslim threat, the danger is that this will strip it of its most positive elements and render it useless as an instrument of social integration. That, more than any terror attack, would be a tragedy for all French people.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Right of free speech
Mains level: Paper 2- Free speech and violence
The article discusses the issues with blaming the expression of free speech for the violence inflicted by the people opposed to the ideas.
Context
- The beheading of a teacher in France has brought to the fore the issue of free speech.
- It is argued that there is a need to respect people’s religion and not be provocative in the aftermath of the gruesome killing.
Issues related to free speech
1) Free-speecher’s burden
- The fact that a barbaric, crazy man can either get offended or inspired by either of the conflicting ideas cannot be a “free-speecher’s” burden.
- Should any protest or campaign be mindful of a potential violent twist that may be given to their ideas?
- Should a causal link between the expression of “offensive ideas” and sufferance of bodies allow violent zealots to hold the right to ransom?
2) Existence of ideas in person
- Ideas have no real, independent existence outside of the bodies in which they inhere.
- Had ideas lived autonomously, independent of the bodies and minds that carry them, ideas would not die.
- But we don’t. And the reason is that some ideas die or weaken over time.
- They become anomalous and discredited either because they are disputed scientifically or because they are contested vigorously and passionately till an anachronistic idea is defeated.
3) Ideas could be good or bad
- In the conflicting terrain of ideas, lies the kernel of social change.
- Ideas could be good or bad.
- How else, except through a conflict of ideas, do women contest patriarchy and push back on received gendered ideas of womanhood?
Issues with arguing on free-speech outside context
- First, as academic Ghassan Hage summed up in his Facebook post: Truth also needs to have its ethics.
- You may be truthful, but unethical.
- The beheading of French teacher requires us to dwell on not just any killing but the barbarism behind it.
- To dwell instead on the genealogies and causes of violent behaviour is bad ethics, for it ends up being nothing more than an apologia for violence.
- Second, it’s bad politics.
- The right to free speech empowers and enables many marginalised lives.
- It is a basic right that preconditions the realisation of other rights.
- So basic that it enables the weak and the oppressed to rise against their oppressors.
Conclusion
In any case, free speech is restrained by the state through its many criteria of “reasonableness”. To further circumscribe it by burdening it with plausible violent appropriations, or with historical conditionalities, is to feed the logic of violence against freedom of expression.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Five eyes
Mains level: Paper 2- Quad and its future
Quad as new feature of Indo-Pacific
- Australia’s participation in the Malabar exercises marks the emergence of the Quad as a new feature of the Indo-Pacific geopolitics.
- The question is India’s ability to take full advantage of the possibilities after the US elections to construct a wide range of new international coalitions.
- Likely changes could envelop a range of old institutions like the Five Eyes and the G-7 grouping that coordinates Western policies on global economic management.
- We could also see the creation of a new League of Democracies that will addres issues like including the defence of shared values, commerce, corruption, taxation, climate change and digital governance.
Phases of India’s international aspiration
- The consolidation of the Quad reflects the political will in Delhi to break free from old shibboleths and respond to security imperatives.
- The post-Quad era opens a new phase in which India, for the first time, can help shape global institutions.
- First phase: Idealism was the hallmark of India’s internationalism in the 1950s, the harsh politics of the Cold War quickly dampened it.
- Second phase: In the 1970s, India embraced the radical agenda of a New International Economic Order, as the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77. The results were meagre.
- Third phase began with the end of the Cold War.
- And as India’s own economic model collapsed, India had to focus on economic reform and prevent the world from intruding too much into its internal affairs.
- The fear of the US activism on Kashmir and nuclear issues saw Delhi turn to Russia and China in search of a “multipolar world” that could constrain American power.
- The BRICS forum with Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa became emblematic of this strategy.
- Delhi also figured out that it was not possible for BRICS to constrain Beijing, since China was so much bigger than the other four members put together.
- Fourth phase in India’s multilateralism is marked by three features — the relative rise in Delhi’s international standing, the breakdown of the great power consensus on economic globalisation, and the breakout of the US-China rivalry.
Efforts to tackle China
- The Trump administration has already sought to imagine the Quad’s possibilities beyond the defence domain.
- The invitation to India to join a Five Eyes meeting came amidst the bipartisan calls in the US Congress for the expansion of the forum and the inclusion of India.
- The “Quad Plus” dialogue has variously drawn in Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, and Vietnam for consultations with the Quad members on coordinating the responses to the pandemic.
- India is also engaged with Japan and Australia in developing resilient supply chains to reduce the reliance on China.
- President Trump has proposed the expansion of G-7 grouping to include Australia, India, Russia and South Korea.
- The last few months has seen the Trump administration promote a “Clean Network” that eliminates untrustworthy vendors from telecom systems, digital apps, trans-oceanic cables and cloud infrastructure.
- Clean Network is now a broader effort to build secure technology ecosystems among like-minded countries.
- Britain is said to be developing plans to convene a coalition of 10 democracies, including India, that can contribute to the construction of secure 5G networks and reduce the current dependence on China.
- France and Canada have invited India to join the Global Partnership on artificial intelligence that now includes 15 countries.
- The objective is to promote responsible development of AI that is consistent with shared democratic values.
Conclusion
Delhi’s participation in the sweeping rearrangement of the global structures will have major consequences for India’s economic prosperity and technological future. Unlike in the past, Delhi now has the resources, leverage and political will to make a difference to the global order
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BECA
Mains level: Paper 2- India-U.S. relations and implications for relations with other countries
The article analyses the impact of India’s growing engagement with the U.S. on relations on India’s foreign policy.
What signing of BECA mean
- The centrepiece of the third 2+2 dialogue was the signing of the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for Geo-Spatial Cooperation.
- With the signing of BECA, India is now a signatory to all U.S.-related foundational military agreements.
- Built into the agreements are provisions for a two-way exchange of information.
- India had signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), in 2016, and the Communications, Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), in 2018.
- By appending its signature to BECA, India is in a position to specifically receive sensitive geo-spatial intelligence.
- The foundational military pacts effectively tie India to the wider U.S. strategic architecture in the region.
Issues with signing BECA
- With the signing of these agreements, India’s claims of maintaining strategic autonomy will be doubtful.
- By signing BECA, India has signed on to becoming part of the wider anti-China ‘coalition of the willing’ led by the U.S.
- By signing on to BECA at this juncture, India has effectively jettisoned its previous policy of neutrality, and of maintaining its equi-distance from power blocs.
Impact on relations with China
- China-India relations have never been easy.
- Since 1988, India has pursued, despite occasional problems, a policy which put a premium on an avoidance of conflicts with China.
- This will now become increasingly problematic as India gravitates towards the U.S. sphere of influence.
- India’s willingness to sign foundational military agreements with the U.S. would suggest that India has made its choice, which can only exacerbate already deteriorating China-India relations.
Impact on the relations in the region
- India needs to pay greater attention at this time to offset its loss of influence in its immediate neighbourhood (in South Asia), and in its extended neighbourhood (in West Asia).
- Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, normally perceived to be within India’s sphere of influence, currently seem to be out of step with India’s approach on many issues.
- At the same time, both China and the U.S. separately, seem to be making inroads and enlarging their influence here.
- The Maldives, for instance, has chosen to enter into a military pact with the U.S. to counter Chinese expansionism in the Indian Ocean region.
- India needs to ensure that the latest UAE-Israel linkage does not adversely impact India’s interests in the region.
- India must also not rest content with the kind of relations it has with Israel, as Tel Aviv has its own distinct agenda in West Asia.
- Furthermore, India needs to devote greater attention to try and restore India-Iran ties which have definitely frayed in recent years.
India’s role in Afghanistan
- India must decide on how best to try and play a role in Afghanistan without getting stuck.
- India had subscribed to an anti-Taliban policy and was supportive of the Northern Alliance (prior to 2001).
- The new policy that dictates India’s imperatives today, finds India not unwilling to meet the Taliban.
- India must decide how a shift in policy at this time would serve India’s objectives in Afghanistan, considering the tremendous investment it has made in recent decades to shore up democracy in that country.
India’s role in SCO and NAM
- SCO, which has China and Russia as its main protagonists — and was conceived as an anti-NATO entity — will test India’s diplomatic skills.
- Even though India currently has a detached outlook, vis-à-vis the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and has increasingly distanced itself from the African and Latin American group in terms of policy prescriptions, matters could get aggravated, following India’s new alliance patterns.
- It would be a rude awakening for India, if it is seen as no longer a stellar member of NAM.
Impact on relations with Russia
- The impact of India signing on to U.S.-related foundational military agreements, cannot but impact India-Russia relations.
- India-Russia relations in recent years have not been as robust as in the pre-2014 period, but many of the edifices that sustained the relationship at optimum levels, including annual meetings between the Russian President and the Indian Prime Minister have remained.
- It is difficult to see how this can be sustained, if India is seen increasingly going into the U.S. embrace.
- Almost certainly in the circumstances, India can hardly hope to count on Russia as a strategic ally.
- This is one relationship which India will need to handle with skill and dexterity, as it would be a tragedy if India-Russia relations were to deteriorate at a time when the world is in a state of disorder.
Consider the question “What are the implications of India’s signing of foundational military agreements with the U.S. for India’s relations with the other countries”
Conclusion
While India moves towards more robust engagement with the U.S., it must also consider impact of such move on the relations with the other countries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: urban floods
Issue of flood in the cities
- Over 50 peple died in the wake of torrential rains in the third week of October in Hyderabad.
- This experience is not unique to the city of Hyderabad, five years ago Chennai saw a massive flood costing much damage and lives.
- Gurugram over the past few years comes to a complete standstill during the monsoon months.
- And for Mumbai, the monsoon has become synonymous with flooding and enormous damages.
Causes of frequent urban floods:
Natural:
- Meteorological Factors: Heavy rainfall, cyclonic storms and thunderstorms causes water to flow quickly through paved urban areas and impound in low lying areas.
- Hydrological Factors: Overbank flow channel networks, occurrence of high tides impeding the drainage in coastal cities.
- Climate Change: Climate change due to various anthropogenic events has led to extreme weather events.
Anthropological:
- Unplanned Urbanization: Unplanned Urbanization is the key cause of urban flooding. A major concern is blocking of natural drainage pathways through construction activity and encroachment on catchment areas, riverbeds and lakebeds.
- Destruction of lakes: A major issue in India cities. Lakes can store the excess water and regulate the flow of water. However, pollution of natural urban water bodies and converting them for development purposes has increased risk of floods.
- Unauthorised colonies and excess construction: Reduced infiltration due paving of surfaces which decreases ground absorption and increases the speed and amount of surface flow
- Poor Solid Waste Management System: Improper waste management system and clogging of storm-water drains because of silting, accumulation of non-biodegradable wastes and construction debris.
- Drainage System: Old and ill maintained drainage system is another factor making cities in India vulnerable to flooding.
- Irresponsible steps: Lack of attention to natural hydrological system and lack of flood control measures.
Impact of the devastation due to floods:
- On economy: Damage to infrastructure, roads and settlements, industrial production, basic supplies, post disaster rehabilitation difficulties etc.
- On human population and wildlife: Trauma, loss of life, injuries and disease outbreak, contamination of water etc.
- On environment: Loss of habitat, tree and forest cover, biodiversity loss and large scale greenery recovery failure.
- On transport and communication: Increased traffic congestion, disruption in rail services, disruption in communication- on telephone, internet cables causing massive public inconvenience.
What is to be done
1) Management of wetlands
- We neglect the issues of incremental land use change, particularly of those commons which provide us with necessary ecological support — wetlands.
- We need to start paying attention to the management of our wetlands by involving local communities.
- The risk is going to increase year after year with changing rainfall patterns and a problem of urban terrain which is incapable of absorbing, holding and discharging water.
2) Implementing the idea of sponge cities
- The idea of a sponge city is to make cities more permeable so as to hold and use the water which falls upon it.
- Sponge cities absorb the rain water, which is then naturally filtered by the soil and allowed to reach urban aquifers.
- This allows for the extraction of water from the ground through urban or peri-urban wells.
- This water can be treated easily and used for city water supply.
- In built form, this implies contiguous open green spaces, interconnected waterways, and channels and ponds across neighbourhoods that can naturally detain and filter water.
- It implies support for urban ecosystems, bio-diversity and newer cultural and recreational opportunities,
- These can all be delivered effectively through an urban mission along the lines of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) and Smart Cities Mission.
On a top priority, such a mission should address the following.
- 1) Wetland policy: In most of our lakes, the shallow ends, which often lie beyond the full tank level, have disappeared.
- These shallow ends are best characterised as wetlands.
- Regardless of ownership, land use on even this small scale needs to be regulated by development control.
- 2) Watershed management and emergency drainage plan is next.
- This should be clearly enunciated in policy and law.
- 3) Ban against terrain alteration is third.
- Lasting irreversible damage has been done to the city by builders, property owners, and public agencies by flattening terrain and altering drainage routes.
- 4) Use of porus material: Our cities are becoming increasingly impervious to water, not just because of increasing built up but also because of the nature of materials used.
- To improve the city’s capacity to absorb water, new porous materials and technologies must be encouraged or mandated across scales.
- Examples of these technologies are bioswales and retention systems, permeable material for roads and pavement, drainage systems which allow storm water to trickle into the ground, green roofs and harvesting systems in buildings.
Conclusion
We can learn to live with nature, we can regulate human conduct through the state and we can strategically design where we build. We need to urgently rebuild our cities such that they have the sponginess to absorb and release water without causing so much misery and so much damage to the most vulnerable of our citizens, as we have seen.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MSP
Mains level: Paper 3- Agri bills and issue of MSP
Question of MSP regime while arguing in favour of recently passed agri bills has made the farmers apprehensive of the purpose of the bill. The article argues for allaying the fears of the farmers and explains the salience of the MSP.
Flawed argument over MSP
- The recently enacted farm bills have triggered debate on the desirability of the MSP regime.
- But, the bills do not facilitate a policy to do away with Minimum Support Prices (MSPs).
- The bills allow free entry to agents who wish to set up markets — whether they be private individuals, producer collectives or cooperatives.
- This means that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other associated agencies can procure in the traditional mandis, or in a new market established under this law — or in their own backyard.
- So, the argument that if the mandis cease to exist, the procurement will also cease is, in fact, flawed.
- Supporters of the bills have quoted the Shanta Kumar committee’s figures to argue that MSPs are anyway irrelevant for most of the farmers in the country.
- This linkage of the farm bills with the MSP only adds to the apprehension that farmers have about the bills.
Significance of MSP
- It is true that the procurement has remained confined to only a few crops.
- But the benefits to the farmers even beyond Punjab and Haryana are certainly not negligible.
- It is true that only a small fraction benefits directly from the procurement.
- But one cannot ignore the indirect benefit of this to all foodgrain producers in the country.
- As the procurement significantly exceeds the PDS requirement, this creates additional demand in the foodgrain market, pushing up the prices.
- This has been a great help for all the grain producers in the country, especially when the international prices have remained low for a long time now.
- The RBI’s annual report of 2017-18 on impact of MSP on the food prices conclusively shows that MSP is a leading factor influencing the output prices of the farm produce in the entire country.
- The issue of MSP is all the more important for rain-fed agriculturists, being deprived of irrigation, they don’t derive benefit from subsidies on electricity and fertiliser as their use is limited.
- So, at the moment, the only state support these farmers (primarily cotton and pulse producers) have is that of MSPs.
Conclusion
The debate on whom and how the state should support is an issue that should be addressed independently of the farm acts. Presenting these acts as an alternative to MSPs will not persuade farmers.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Deepfakes
Mains level: Paper 3- Threats of the deepfakes
Deepfakes poses threaten the society at various level due to their disruptive potential. The article explains the threat and suggest the measures to deal with the threat.
Understanding deepfakes
- Deepfakes are the digital media (video, audio, and images) manipulated using Artificial Intelligence.
- This synthetic media content is referred to as deepfakes.
- They make it possible to fabricate media — swap faces, lip-syncing, and puppeteer.
- Access to commodity cloud computing, algorithms, and abundant data has created a perfect storm to democratise media creation and manipulation.
- Synthetic media can create possibilities and opportunities for all people.
- But as with any new innovative technology, it can be weaponised to inflict harm.
Threat posed by deepfakes
- Deepfakes, hyper-realistic digital falsification, can inflict damage to individuals, institutions, businesses and democracy.
- Nation-state actors with geopolitical aspirations, ideological believers, violent extremists, and economically motivated enterprises can manipulate media narratives using deepfakes, with easy and unprecedented reach and scale.
- Pornographic deepfakes can threaten, intimidate, and inflict psychological harm and reduce women to sexual objects.
- Deepfakes can be deployed to extract money, confidential information, or exact favours from individuals.
- Deepfakes can cause short- and long-term social harm and accelerate the already declining trust in news media.
- Such an erosion can contribute to a culture of factual relativism, fraying the increasingly strained civil society fabric.
Undermining democracy
- A deepfake can also aid in altering the democratic discourse and undermine trust in institutions and impair diplomacy.
- False information about institutions, public policy, and politicians powered by a deepfake can be exploited to spin the story and manipulate belief.
- A deepfake of a political candidate can sabotage their image and reputation.
- Voters can be confused and elections can be disrupted.
- A high-quality deepfake can inject compelling false information that can cast in doubt the voting process and election results.
- Deepfakes contribute to factual relativism and enable authoritarian leaders to thrive.
- Another concern is a liar’s dividend; an undesirable truth is dismissed as deepfake or fake news.
Solution to the problem
- Media literacy for consumers and journalists is the most effective tool to combat disinformation and deepfakes.
- Improving media literacy is a precursor to addressing the challenges presented by deepfakes.
- Meaningful regulations with a collaborative discussion with the technology industry, civil society, and policymakers can facilitate disincentivising the creation and distribution of malicious deepfakes.
- We also need easy-to-use and accessible technology solutions to detect deepfakes, authenticate media, and amplify authoritative sources.
Conclusion
Deepfakes can create possibilities for all people. However, as access to synthetic media technology increases, so does the risk of exploitation. To counter the menace of deepfakes, we all must take the responsibility to be a critical consumer of media on the Internet, think and pause before we share on social media, and be part of the solution to this infodemic.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: India FTAs
Mains level: Paper 2- Limits and challenges India faces in its engagement in Quad and Indo-Pacific construct
The article analyses the similarity, differences and limitations of the Quad and the Indo-Pacific construct and delineate the challenges India as it seeks to deal with China.
Expectations from India in countering China
- During the mid-2000s the world expected India to be an economic powerhouse, a decade later, those expectations remain modest, at best.
- The international community has once again decided to court New Delhi to play a decisive role in shaping the region’s strategic future.
- The expectation this time is more strategic and military, to lead the charge against China from within the region.
Role of India in the Quad and similarity with Indo-Pacific construct
- Quad is a forum for strategic and military consultations among India, the U.S., Australia and Japan.
- Quad members are also major States in the Indo-Pacific region.
- Both the Quad and the Indo-Pacific constructs are focused on China.
- More so, they are also in some ways centred around India’s geographic location and its policies.
- Put differently, if you take China out of the equation, they would have little rationale for existence.
- If you take India out of the picture, their ability to sustain as geopolitical constructs would drastically diminish.
Differences between Indo-Pacific Construct and Quad
- The Indo-Pacific is a politico-economic vision and the Quad is a military-strategic vision which does not form the military or strategic nucleus of the first.
- While the Indo-Pacific provides a complex political and economic picture with a hesitant, but growing, articulation of China as a strategic challenge.
- The Quad is inherently more anti-China in character and intent.
- The Indo-Pacific,will find it impossible to avoid engaging China, the Quad is mostly focused on diplomatic signalling and with little common intent let alone joint action.
- Quad’s ability to succeed would entirely depend on China — the more aggressive China gets, the more resolute the Quad countries would be in strengthening it.
Comparing Indio-Pacific with BRI
- The BRI is far more advanced, much more thought-out, and enjoyes the support of Chinese state.
- Several Indo-Pacific countries are already members of the BRI.
- On the flip side, the BRI is already under immense stress from its inherent weaknesses, such as China’s unilateral pursuit of the BRI and the associated economic burdens on the States that sign up to it.
Challenges India face
1) On economic front
- There must be strong economic partnerships and linkages among its members, merely focusing on strategic talk and possible military cooperation will not work.
- India’s recent decision not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), could potentially complicate the country’s future engagements in the region.
- Also worryinng is the already huge gap between India and China on trade with almost every Indo-Pacific country.
- This growing trade gap will be a major determining factor in shaping the region’s strategic realities.
- Institutional engagement: India does not have FTAs with Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Bangladesh and the Maldives. It has FTAs with South Korea, the Association of South East Asian Nations, or ASEAN, Japan and Sri Lanka.
- In the case of China, it has FTAs with all these countries barring the U.S.
2) On strategic and military front
- India strategic and military engagements in the region also fall short.
- Beijing is a major defence supplier to several of the region’s States including Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
- This dwarfs India’s minimal sales, defence dialogues and occasional joint military exercises in the region.
Way forward
- India’s role in the Indo-Pacific will remain limited if it does not prove to be a major economic partner to these States.
- But given the economic slowdown in India today in the wake of COVID-19 and the lack of political consensus about RCEP, India’s ability to economically engage with the region remains limited.
- On the military-strategic side too, India’s performance in the region is less than desirable.
- The only choice, it appears then, is for some sort of a loosely structured regional strategic alliance with the U.S. and its allies in the broader Indo-Pacific region.
Consider the question ” What are the similarities and differences in the Quad and the Indo-Pacific construct? What are the challenges India faces as it increases its engagement in the both.”
Conclusion
India remains caught between a deeply constrained, but unavoidable, need to rethink its strategic posture, and the recognition of its material inability to do so, at least for now.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BECA
Mains level: Paper 2- India-US and optimism
The growing pace of India-US bilateral engagement has raised hopes in several quarters. However, there are several issues that must be considered and need to avoid excessive optimism.
Timing of 2+2 dialogue
- The India-US 2+2 third meeting was held in Delhi only a week before the US presidential elections.
- The government felt that it was important to seal the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) without delay.
- Other reason could be government’s assessment that there is bipartisan support in the US for higher and positive bilateral ties.
Need for caution in India’s approach
- In India-US ties, the leading outside consideration is China.
- A Biden presidency, should that be the choice of the American people, would seek to ensure that China’s rise is not at the cost of the US’s global pre-eminence.
- However, the strategy and methods it employs would be different from that of its predecessor.
- Further, even a Trump 2 administration, with the election done, may change course in its China approach.
- Hence, caution and prudence are good diplomatic watchwords.
- It is good that the agreements for a full defence engagement with the US are in place.
- But it is one matter to have them done and an entirely different one insofar as the nature and intensity of cooperation.
- So, India’s tradition of relying on its own strengths in matters of national security should not be eroded in the hope that an outside power would provide useful inputs.
Alliance Vs. Partnership
- India-US ties are in the framework of a partnership, not an alliance.
- The partnership may not be based on opposition to an outside element, the alliance almost always is.
- Alliances also demand a much higher price than partnerships, through loss of autonomy if the ally is a bigger power.
Excessive enthusiasm on Quad may be premature
- The 2+2 joint statement does not name China but its thrust is clear.
- The Quad is based on a commonality of concerns on account of China’s actions.
- India’s decision to go along with a more purposive group, including through its maritime exercises, is in keeping with its interests.
- The real direction that the Quad will take has to await the US’s overall China strategy over the next few years.
- Excessive enthusiasm on the Quad front may, therefore, be premature.
Way forward
- India has to change the nature of its economic and commercial ties with China.
- Thus, the joint statement’s reference on the need to “enhance supply chain resilience and to seek alternatives to the current paradigm” was timely, though here, again, the future US approach is not entirely certain.
- The areas where the bilateral partnership has the potential of evolving most positively for India relate to health, education and science and technology.
- There should not be any reluctance in developing ties in defence industries, too, but it cannot be forgotten that no country will part with any of its critical technologies.
- But there cannot be a substitute for developing indigenous capacity for India’s needs for weapon systems.
Conclusion
India-US ties will move positively forward but there will be imponderables ahead, principally arising out of US strategies towards China. But, a close embrace of another country is always problematic.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: APMC Act
Mains level: Paper 3- Agri bills and their implications for the farmers.
Agri-bill passed by the Parliament resulted in the protest from farmers from several states. The bills have also been challenged on the legal footing as well. This article explains how the bills will benefit the farmers and also examines the legal basis used for their passage.
States trying to nullify the agri bills passed by Parliament
- Parliament has passed three bills on agriculture reform. This has evoked protests, largely in Punjab and Haryana.
- Taking recourse to Article 254 of the Constitution, the Punjab government has passed its own bills to nullify some provisions of the central acts.
- Similar action by the Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan governments seems to be on the anvil.
Legal justification for Parliament passing the laws related to agriculture
- The Constitution has placed agriculture on the state list.
- Various petitions have also been filed in the Supreme Court claiming that the central laws infringe upon the jurisdiction of state governments.
- However, it is the Centre which decides and announces support prices for major crops for the entire country.
- It also decides issues such as bank loan waivers.
- International agreements and multilateral trade in agricultural products also fall in the Union government’s domain.
- Agricultural and dairy products, in fact, had a prominent role in India not joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
- Entry 33 in the concurrent list limits the power of states in agriculture, by empowering both governments to legislate on production, trade and supply of a range of agricultural foodstuffs and raw material.
Use of Article 254 to bypass Central law
- The Punjab bill has set in motion the process of states taking refuge under Article 254 to pass their own pieces of legislation.
- All state bills that seek to nullify central acts have to be approved by the President after they have received the consent of the governor of the state.
Way forward
- Reformist chief ministers and astute policy planners should grab this opportunity and encourage investment in private infrastructure to create supply chains and give the farmer the benefit of demand-led prices.
- They should also take appropriate action to create institutional mechanisms, such as farmer producer organisations or aggregators, to ensure greater farmer participation.
Conclusion
It would be in the interests of the farming community and state governments to give the much-delayed reform measures a fair chance by giving them access to competitive purchases, affording better prices.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Schemes for DisComs
Mains level: Paper 3- Financial issues faced by the DisComs
The article analyses the factors responsible for financial difficulties faced by the DisComs and suggests the ways to deal with the issues.
Important role of the DisComs
- Distribution Companies (DisComs) are the utilities that typically buy power from generators and retail these to consumers.
- For all of India’s global leadership for growth of renewable energy, or ambitions of smart energy, the buck stops with the DisComs.
- The days of scarcity of power are over.
- The physical supply situation has mostly improved.
- But the financial picture has not brightened much.
Analysing the data on liabilities of the DisComs
- ₹90,000 crore (later upgraded to ₹1,25,000 crore) was earmarked for DisComs in ₹20-lakh crore package announced in the wake of Covid-19’s economic shock.
- The Power Finance Corporation (PFC)’s Report on Utility Workings for 2018-19 showed dues to generators were ₹2,27,000 crore, and this is well before COVID-19.
- It also showed similar Other Current Liabilities.
- DisComs have delayed their payments upstream (not just to generators but others as well) — in essence, treating payables like an informal loan.
But why do DisComs not pay on time?
- Ideally, DisComs should not incur losses as they enjoy a regulated rate of return.
- While AT&C losses can explain part of any gap. Major reasons are as discussed below:
1) Regulatory issue and cash-flow gap due to it
- The first problem starts at the regulatory level where even if DisComs performed as targeted, across India, they would face a considerable cash flow gap.
- This cash flow gap was ₹60,000-plus crore in FY18-19 compared to their then annual cost structure of ₹7.23-lakh crore.
2) Payabeles issue: Due from consumers, state and regulatory gap
- These dues are of three types.
- First, regulators themselves have failed to fix cost-reflective tariffs thus creating Regulatory Assets,which are to be recovered through future tariff hikes.
- Second, about a seventh of DisCom cost structures is meant to be covered through explicit subsidies by State governments.
- Third, consumers owed DisComs over ₹1.8 lakh crore in FY 2018-19, booked as trade receivables.
- State governments are the biggest defaulters, responsible for an estimated a third of trade receivables, besides not paying subsidies in full or on time.
3) Challenge of renewable energy
- The rise of renewable energy means that premium customers will leave the system partly first by reducing their daytime usage.
- And as battery technologies mature, their dependence on DisComs may wane entirely.
- Even without batteries, regulations permitting, they may want to find third party suppliers under competitive models.
Impact of Covid pandemic
- COVID-19 has completely shattered incoming cash flows to utilities.
- The revenue implications were far worse since the lockdown disproportionately impacted revenues from so-termed paying customers, commercial and industrial segments.
- Reduced demand for electricity did not save as much because a large fraction of DisCom cost structures are locked in through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that obligate capital cost payments, leaving only fuel savings with lower offtake.
Way forward
- We will probably need a much larger liquidity infusion than has been announced thus far, but it also must go hand-in-hand with credible plans to pay down growing debt.
- We need a complete overhaul of the regulation of electricity companies and their deliverables.
- We need to apply common sense metrics of lifeline electricity supply instead of the political doleout of free electricity even for those who may not deserve such support.
- For the rest, regulators must allow cost-covering tariffs.
Consider the question “Examine the factor responsible for making the DisComs financial unviable? Sugget the pathways to deal with the issues faced by the DisComs”
Conclusion
The financial problems of DisComs have been brewing for many yearsHowever, if business as usual was not even good enough before COVID-19, it will not be workable for the current national needs of quality, affordable, and sustainable power.
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