Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Afghan peace process and India's role
The U.S. objectives
- Following 4 were the states as objectives of the Afghan peace process.
- 1) An end to violence by declaring a ceasefire.
- 2) An intra-Afghan dialogue for a lasting peace.
- 3) The Taliban cutting ties with terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda.
- 4) U.S. troop withdrawal.
Evolving Indian stand in the peace process
- India’s vision of a sovereign, united, stable, plural and democratic Afghanistan is one that is shared by a large constituency in Afghanistan, cutting across ethnic and provincial lines.
- At Doha meeting, India’s External Affairs Ministerreiterated that the peace process must be “Afghan led, Afghan owned and Afghan controlled”.
- But Indian policy has evolved from its earlier hands-off approach to the Taliban.
- U.S. and Russian representatives suggested if India had concerns regarding anti-India activities of terrorist groups, it must engage directly with the Taliban. In other words.
Limited interest of the major powers
- Major powers have limited interests in the peace process.
- The European Union has made it clear that its financial contribution will depend on the security environment and the human rights record.
- China can always lean on Pakistan to preserve its security and connectivity interests.
- For Russia, blocking the drug supply and keeping its southern periphery secure from extremist influences is key.
- That is why no major power is taking ownership for the reconciliation talks, but merely content with being facilitators.
Conclusion
A more active engagement will enable India to work with like-minded forces in the region to ensure that the vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal does not lead to an unravelling of the gains registered during the last two decades.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Seventh Schedule
Mains level: Paper 2- Federal system
The article analyses the issues of distribution of powers under the Constitution and the issues linked with it.
Debate on the role of Centre and states
- There is an argument for the need to re-examine the distribution of powers under the Seventh Schedule so as to rationalise the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs).
- Under the Centrally Sponsored SchemesCentre extends support in sectors pertaining to the State List.
- Spending by the Centre on a state subject like health and need for states’ contribute to a Union subject like defence is considered.
- However, the constitutional assignments between the Centre and subnational governments in federations, are done broadly on the basis of their respective comparative advantage.
- That is why the provision of national public goods is in the federal domain and those with the state-level public service span are assigned to the states.
3 settled issues in the debate
- The debate seems to have settled on at least three counts.
- One, the federal organisation of powers can be revisited and reframed.
- Two, the CSSs must continue but they should be restructured.
- Three, there is a need for an appropriate forum to discuss the complex and contentious issue of reviewing federal organisation of powers and restructuring of central transfers.
Review of the subjects in lists
- In spite of health being a state subject, the response to collective threats linked to the subject required some kind of organisation of federal responsibilities on a functional basis.
- A typical response is to recommend shifting subjects to the Concurrent List to enable an active role for the Centre.
- The High-Level Group, constituted by the 15th Finance Commission, recommended shifting health from the State to the Concurrent List.
- A similar recommendation was made earlier by the Ashok Chawla Committee for water.
Challenges
- Shifting of subjects from the State to Concurrent List in times of acute sub-nationalism, deep territorialisation and competitive federalism is going to be challenging.
Way forward
- The most collective threats and the challenges of coping with emerging risks of sustainability are linked to either the State List subjects or require actions by states — water, agriculture, biodiversity, pollution, climate change.
- This extended role of ensuring security against threats to sustainability of resources forms a new layer of considerations.
- This should define the contours of a coordinated response between the Centre and States — as it happened during the pandemic.
- In fact, such threats and challenges require the states to play a dominant role.
- At the same time, the Centre must expand its role beyond the mitigation of inter-state externalities and address the challenges of security and sustainability.
Consider the question “The federal organisation of powers under the Constitution’s Seventh Schedule needs review. In light of this, examine the problems faced by the distribution and suggest the challenge the review would face.”
Conclusion
The ongoing friction between the Centre and the states over GST reforms tells us that consensus-building is not a one-time exercise. It has to allow sustained dialogue and deliberation. Perhaps it is time to revisit the proposal for an elevated and empowered Inter-State Council.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Paris Agreement
Mains level: Paper 3- Paris Agreement and India's progress on climate action
The article takes stock of India’s climate action and the issue of phasing out the use of coal.
Context
- The UN Secretary-General called on India to give up coal immediately and reduce emissions by 45% by 2030.
State of India’s climate action
- India’s renewable energy programme is ambitious and its energy efficiency programme is delivering, especially in the domestic consumption sector.
- India is one of the few countries with at least 2° Celsius warming compliant climate action.
- India is also among one of smaller list of countries on track to fulfilling their Paris Agreement commitments.
- India’s annual emissions, at 0.5 tonnes per capita, are well below the global average of 1.3 tonnes.
- In terms of cumulative emissions, India’s contribution by 2017 was only 4% for a population of 1.3 billion.
How West is performing?
- While talking about their phasing out of coal, the global North has obscured the reality of its continued dependence on oil and natural gas, both equally fossil fuels, with no timeline for their phaseout.
- While it is amply clear that their commitments into the future set the world on a path for almost 3°C warming, they have diverted attention by fuzzy talk of “carbon neutrality” by 2050.
- Environmentalists in developed countries, unable to summon up the domestic political support have turned to pressure the developing countries.
- All of these are accompanied by increasing appeals to multilateral or First World financial and development institutions to force this agenda on to developing countries.
Implications of ending coal investment for India
- Currently, roughly 2 GW of coal-based generation is being decommissioned per year.
- But meeting the 2030 electricity consumption target of 1,580 to 1,660 units per person per year, will require anywhere between 650 GW to 750 GW of renewable energy.
- Unlike the developed nations, India cannot substitute coal substantially by oil and gas and despite some wind potential, a huge part of this growth needs to come from solar.
- However, renewables at best can meet residential consumption and some part of the demand from the service sector.
- Currently, manufacturing growth powered by fossil fuel-based energy is itself a necessity.
Conclusion
India must unanimously reject the UN Secretary General’s call and reiterate its long-standing commitment to an equitable response to the challenge of global warming.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-China relations
Context
- After the skirmish at the border, Beijing started to concentrate troops, armoured vehicles and munitions opposite our posts in Aksai China at Galwan.
2 interpretations of China’s move
- First believes that the Chinese exercise was a territorial snatch in Aksai Chin, which they believe is entirely theirs.
- The move was accompanied by a “lesson” to the Indians on aggressive Indian behaviour in not conceding Aksai Chin.
- The second school of thought in India believes that territory has nothing to do with it.
- They believe that, due to growing economic power, Beijing will lay down the rules of world governance.
How it matters for India
- India contest China’s entire southern border, refuse to join the Belt and Road initiative, create an anti-China maritime coalition, compete with them for influence in South East Asia and Africa.
- India is also unsupportive of their crackdown on Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang and move ever closer to the United States.
- When China assumes hegemonic power after 2030, India is going to get a nasty surprise.
- Secularism, democracy and the rights of man will play no part in Chinese foreign policy.
- China will overturn every international, financial, trade, diplomatic, arms control and nuclear agreement that the world has put together in seven decades.
Way forward
- We in India need to conduct a large and vociferous debate on Chinese intentions.
- If the Chinese intention is to “teach us a lesson” we need a new national strategy, combining diplomatic and military means.
- If our national goal is to concentrate on the creation of wealth and growing GDP, let us proclaim it, tighten our belt, look down and avoid conflict.
Conclusion
What China wants is Indian acceptance of Beijing’s benign superiority, and that is a purely Chinese trait, not to be confused with the known rules of international diplomacy. Talking from a position of inferiority will not lead to an equitable solution. But first, a national debate.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Reorganisation of States
Mains level: Paper 2- Federalism in India
The article analyses the challenges federalism in India faces and the important role played by the division of states based on the languages.
Three conceptions of nationalism in India
- Following three conceptions of nationalism were prevalent in India before independence.
- The first, the idea that a community with a strongly unified culture must have a single state of its own.
- The second saw the nation as defined by a common culture whose adherents must have a state of their own.
- But this common culture was not ethno-religious.
- It conceives common culture in terms of a strong idea of unity that marginalises or excludes other particular identities.
- A third nationalism accepts that communities nourished by distinct, territorially concentrated regional cultures have the capacity to design states of their own as also educational, legal, economic, and other institutions.
- This may be called a coalescent nationalism consistent with a fairly strong linguistic federalism.
- The central state associated with it is not multi-national.
- At best, it is a multi-national state without labels, one that does not call itself so; a self-effacing multi-national state.
Suspicion of linguistic identities
- After Partition, the Indian ruling class began to view with suspicion the political expression of even linguistic identities.
- It was feared that federation structured along ethno-linguistic lines might tempt politicians to mobilise permanently on the basis of language.
- The second fear was about an increase in the likelihood of inter-ethnic violence, encourage separatism and eventually lead to India’s break up.
- Thus, when the Constitution came into force in 1950, India adopted unitary, civic nationalism as its official ideology.
Formation of states on linguistic basis and its implications
- A unitary mindset shaped by the experience of a centralised colonial state was resurrected.
- The second tier of government was justified in functional terms, not on ethical grounds of the recognition of group cultures.
- Following the Committee’s recommendations, States were reorganised in 1956.
- India slowly became a coalescent nation-state, moving from the ‘holding together’ variety to what is called the ‘coming together’ form of (linguistic) federalism.
- This meant that regional parties were stronger than earlier in their own regions and at the centre.
- This let to more durable centre because it was grounded more on the consent and participation of regional groups that, at another level, were also self-governing.
- Indian federalism also attempted to remove its rigidities by incorporating asymmetries in the relation between the Centre and different States.
- Treating all States as equals required the acknowledgement of their specific needs and according them differential treatment.
Conclusion
Coalescent nationalism has served India well, benefiting several groups in India. True, it has not worked as well in India’s border areas such as the North-east and Kashmir. But their problems can only be resolved by deepening not abandoning coalescent nationalism.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Basic Structure doctrine
Mains level: Paper 2- Basic Structure and essential feature doctrine
The article revisits the impact and significance of the case for the democracy in India.
Understanding the Basic Structure doctrine
- Basic Structure and essential features doctrine was expounded in the Kesavananda Bharati case.
- In the case, the validity of the 29th amendment which immunised, in the Ninth Schedule Kerala’s takeover of the religious mutt’s property was challenged.
- Basic structure is the power of judicial review and essential features are what the Court identifies as such in the exercise of that power.
- Justice Bhagwati remarkably enunciated as an essential feature the “harmony” between fundamental rights and directive principles.
- The crucial message though is that the apex court has, in the rarest of rare cases, the constituent power to pronounce a constitutional amendment invalid.
Limits on the powers of Supreme Court
- The Court is bound by the “golden triangle” of rights created by Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution.
- Court must derive the “spirit” of the Constitution by reference to the provisions of the Constitution.
- Since 1973, the evidence shows the Apex Court has shown utmost democratic responsibility and rectitude in interpreting the doctrine of BSEF.
Consider the question asked by the UPSC in 2019 “Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution is limited power and it cannot be enlarged into absolute power”. In light of this statement explain whether parliament under article 368 of the constitution can destroy the Basic Structure of the Constitution by expanding its amending power? “
Conclusion
The ultimate message of BSEF doctrine is not merely to set limits to the power of the managers of people, but to make little by little the tasks of emancipation less onerous.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Issue of employment in India
The article discusses the issue of vulnerability of informal jobs in India and suggests the steps to address the problem.
The urban unemployment in India crept up to 9.83% in August as against 9.15% in July, according to monthly unemployment data released Tuesday by the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). In other words, roughly one in every 10 person in urban areas cannot find work
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2-National Education Policy
The article analyses the missing focus on the rural youth in the National Education Policy 2020 and its implications.
Education in rural India and NEP
- Poor quality education marks and mars the lives of rural citizens.
- The NEP fails to address the growing school differentiation in which government schools are now primarily attended by children of disadvantaged castes and Adivasi groups.
- The mushrooming of private schools caters to the aspirations of the more advantaged castes and classes.
- The NEP overlooks the complexity of contemporary rural India, which is marked by a sharp deceleration of its economy, extant forms of distress, and widespread poverty.
- Rural candidates are finding it increasingly difficult to gain entry into professional education.
- The lack of fit between their degrees and the job market means that several lakhs of them find themselves both “unemployable” and unemployed.
What the NEP misses
- NEP overlooks the general adverse integration of the rural into the larger macroeconomy and into poor quality mass higher education.
- The report calls for the “establishment of large, multi-discipline universities and colleges” and places emphasis on online and distance learning (ODL).
- However, correspondence courses and distance education degrees have become a source of revenue generation for universities.
- The possibility of forging and promoting environmental studies for local ecological restoration and conservation are missing.
- Emphasis on local health and healing traditions from the vast repertoire of medical knowledge is missing.
- Vernacular architectural traditions and craftsmanship to use local resources find no mention at all in the NEP.
Neoliberal ideas in NEP
- The NEP moots the possibility of establishing “Special Education Zones” in disadvantaged areas and in “aspirational districts”.
- But the report provides no details as to how such SEZs will function and who will be the beneficiaries of such institutions.
Conclusion
The NEP fails to cater to the needs of rural India’s marginalised majority, who in so many ways are rendered into being subjects rather than citizens.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Peace in the Middle East
Realignment of relations is taking place in the Middle East with wider implications for the future of the region. India needs to reconsider its framework based on the non-involvement.
Recent geopolitical developments
- India-China tensions have soared over the border issue.
- The Afghan peace process is underway with the first direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban insurgents at Doha, in Qatar.
- The normalisation of the relations between Israel and Arab countries began with the UAE and Bahrain normalising the relations.
Issues with the development
- The chances of failure in Afghanistan are real.
- The momentum behind the normalisation of ties between Israel and the Gulf kingdoms, may not necessarily lead to broader peace in the Middle East.
- The US initiatives in Afghanistan and Arabia are driven by President Donald Trump’s quest for diplomatic victories.
Why it matters to India
1) The vulnerability of the peace process
- Because of competing interests, the peace process in Afghanistan and the Middle East remain vulnerable.
- The unfolding dynamic will alter the geopolitical landscape in both places.
- Whether peace breaks out in Afghanistan or not, the Taliban is here to stay.
- As UAE and Bahrain join Egypt and Jordan in having formal relationships with Israel, the contradiction between Arabs and Israelis is no longer the dominant one in the region.
2) India should recognise the importance of Arabia
- India’s strategic community tends to take too narrow a view of the Arabian salience.
- The focus is mostly on ensuring oil supplies, promoting manpower exports, and managing the Pakistan problem.
- We should consider that the Afghan peace talks are taking place in Qatar, a tiny Gulf Kingdom.
- The UAE and Saudi Arabia were the only countries to recognise the Taliban government in the late 1990s.
- This time around, they appear to have taken a backseat.
- Delhi will need to pay more attention to the unfolding realignments between the Arabs and non-Arab states like Iran, Turkey and Israel.
3) Paradox of American power
- The U.S. is being seen as a declining power in the matters of the Middle East and Afghanistan.
- But the reality remains that the US is the one forcing a change in both the places.
4) Implications of strategic vacuum created by the U.S. exit
- As the US steps back from the region, the resulting strategic vacuum is likely to be filled by Russia and China.
- Russia and China are quite active in both the Middle East and Afghanistan.
- China’s future role in Afghanistan, in partnership with Pakistan, could be quite significant and will be of some concern for India.
- Regional powers have already acquired much say in the new geopolitics of the Middle East.
- Qatar and UAE punch way above their weight, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are locked in a major contest for regional influence.
5) Domestic politics in the country
- Religious radicalism, sectarian and ethnic divisions, and the clamour for more representative governments are sharpening conflicts within and between countries.
- The collapse of the oil market is undermining the region’s economic fortunes.
- Collapsing oil market is also making it harder for political elites to address the emerging political challenges.
Consider the question “Middle East is going through the major realignment of relations. What are its implications for India?.
Conclusion
As the old order begins to crumble in the greater Middle East, the question is no longer whether India should join the geopolitical jousting there; but when, how and in partnership with whom.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Question hour and zero hour comparison
Mains level: Paper 2- Question hour and its significance
The article highlights the significance of question hour in democracy.
Context
- The decision to go without “Question Hour” during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, beginning September 14, has evoked serious concerns about the democratic functioning of the institution.
Significance of question hour
- Question Hour is an opportunity for the members to raise questions,
- It is also a parliamentary device primarily meant for exercising legislative control over executive actions.
- It is also a device to criticise government policies and programmes, ventilate public grievances, expose the government’s lapses, extract promises from ministers.
- In short, question hour helps to ensure accountability and transparency in governance.
Right to question the executive: Historical background
- The right to question the executive has been exercised by members of the House from the colonial period.
- The first Legislative Council in British India under the Charter Act, 1853, allowed members the power to ask questions to the executive.
- The Indian Council Act of 1861 allowed members to elicit information by means of questions.
- However, it was the Indian Council Act, 1892, which formulated the rules for asking questions including short notice questions.
- The Indian Council Act, 1909, which incorporated provisions for asking supplementary questions by members.
- The Montague-Chelmsford reforms brought forth a significant change in 1919 by incorporating a rule that the first hour of every meeting was earmarked for questions.
- Parliament has continued this tradition.
- Since 1921, the question on which a member desired to have an oral answer, was distinguished by him with an asterisk, a star.
Recent instances in which right to ask questions was curtailed
- The government passed important bills in the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha before the formation of department-related standing committees.
- The Constitution Amendment Bill on J&K was introduced without circulating copies to the members.
- Several important bills were passed as Finance Bills to avoid scrutiny of the Rajya Sabha.
- Standing committees are an extension of Parliament.
- Any person has the right to present his/her opinion to a Bill during the process of consideration.
Consider the question “What is the significance of question hour in the context of democracy in India? What is the implication of its suspension due to pandemic?”
Conclusion
The government’s actions erode the constitutional mandate of parliamentary oversight over executive actions as envisaged under Article 75 (3) of the Indian Constitution.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Malnutrition and health of the child
The article analyses the problem of malnutrition in India and suggests the pathways to achieve the malnutrition free India by 2030.
Severity of the nourishment problem in India
- There were 189.2 million undernourished people (28 per cent of the world) in India in 2017-19, as per the combined report of FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (FAO, et.al. 2020) on “The state of Food Security and Nutrition in the World”.
- India accounts for 28 per cent (40.3 million) of the world’s stunted children (low height-for-age) under five years of age, and 43 per cent (20.1 million) of the world’s wasted children (low weight-for-height) in 2019.
- In India, the problem has been more severe amongst children below the age of five years.
- As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 2015-16), the proportion of underweight and stunted children was as high as 35.8 per cent and 38.4 per cent respectively.
- In several districts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and even Gujarat, the proportion of underweight children was more than 40 per cent.
Aims of the National Nutrition Mission (NNM)
- Ending all forms of malnutrition by 2030 is also the target of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-2) of Zero Hunger.
- Towards this end, NNM aims to reduce stunting, underweight and low birth weight each by 2 per cent per annum.
- It aims to reduce anaemia among children, adolescent girls and women, each by 3 per cent per annum by 2022.
- However, the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990–2017 has estimated that if the current trend continues, India cannot achieve these targets under NNM by 2022.
Understanding the key determinants and deciding policy response
1) Mothers’ education
- Mothers’ education, particularly higher education, has the strongest inverse association with under-nutrition.
- Women’s education has a multiplier effect not only on household food security but also on the child’s feeding practice and the sanitation facility.
- Despite India’s considerable improvement in female literacy, only 13.7 per cent of women have received higher education (NFHS, 2015-16).
- Therefore, programmes that promote women’s higher education such as liberal scholarships for women need to be accorded a much higher priority.
2) Sanitation and access to safe drinking water
- The second key determinant of child under-nutrition is the wealth index, which subsumes access to sanitation facilities and safe drinking water.
- WASH initiatives, that is, safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, are critical for improving child nutritional outcomes.
- In this context, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan aims to eliminate open defecation and bring about behavioural changes in hygiene and sanitation practices.
- In five years of the Abhiyan, as per government records, rural sanitation coverage has gone from 38.7 per cent in 2014 to 100 per cent in 2019, while the sanitation coverage in urban cites has gone up to 99 per cent by September 2020.
- This remarkable achievement of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, subject to third-party evaluations, is expected to have a multiplier effect on nutritional outcomes.
3) Leveraging agricultural policies
- We should leverage agricultural policies and programmes to be more “nutrition-sensitive” and reinforcing diet diversification towards a nutrient-rich diet.
- Food-based safety nets in India are biased in favour of staples: rice and wheat.
- They need to provide a more diversified food basket, including coarse grains, millets, pulses and bio-fortified staples.
- Bio-fortification is very cost-effective in improving the diet of households and the nutritional status of children.
- The Harvest-Plus programme of CGIAR can work with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to grow new varieties of nutrient-rich staple food crops.
4) Promotion of exclusive breastfeeding, complementary foods, diversified diet
- The promotion of exclusive breastfeeding and the introduction of complementary foods and a diversified diet after the first six months is essential to meet the nutritional needs of infants and ensure appropriate growth and cognitive development of children.
5) Access to prenatal and postnatal care
- Access and utilisation of prenatal and postnatal health care services also play a significant role in curbing undernutrition among children.
- Aanganwadi workers and community participation can bring significant improvements in child-caring practices.
Consider the question “Assess the severity the problem of malnutrition in India and suggest the measure to achieve the goal of malnutrition free India by 2030”
Conclusion
To contribute towards the holistic nourishment of children and a malnutrition free India by 2030, the government needs to address the multi-dimensional determinants of malnutrition on an urgent basis.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Right to livelihood and related Articles
Mains level: Paper 2- Right of livelihood
The article analyses the implications of recent Supreme Court order regarding the removal of encroachment along the railway line.
Context
- In short order, the Supreme Court of India on August 31 ordered the removal of about 48,000 slum dwellings situated along the railway tracks in Delhi.
- The order raises several legal questions, which are discussed below.
1) Violation of the principle of natural justice
- The order violates principles of natural justice and due process because it was delivered without hearing the affected party, the jhuggi dwellers.
- The order was passed in the long-running case on the piling up of garbage along railway tracks.
- However, neither this case nor the report concerns itself with the legality of informal settlements.
- Still, the Court made an unconvincing connection between the piling of garbage and the presence of slums.
2) Ignoring the right to livelihood
- In this order, the Court ignored its long-standing jurisprudence on the right to livelihood.
- In the landmark decision concerning pavement-dwellers, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Olga Tellis & Ors vs. Bombay Municipal Corporation & Ors. (1985) held that the right to life also includes the “right to livelihood”.
- Further, in Chameli Singh vs. the State Of U.P. (1995), the Supreme Court recognised the “right to shelter” as a component of the right to life under Article 21 and freedom of movement under Article 19(1)(e).
3) Failure to consider policies and case laws
- High Court of Delhi has held that prior to any eviction, a survey must be conducted.
- The procedure laid down in this judgment formed the basis for the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015.
- In Ajay Maken & Ors. vs Union Of India & Ors. (2019), the Delhi High Court invoked the idea of the “Right to the City” to uphold the housing rights of slum dwellers.
- This case led to the framing of a Draft Protocol for the 2015 Policy on how meaningful engagement with residents should be conducted.
Conclusion
The Courts need to strike the balance between the rights of the slum dweller and those affected by the encroachment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-China relations
The article analyses the challenges in the India-China border dispute and the recent events of Chinese aggression.
Trust deficit
- The recent Chinese actions have set back trust between the two countries by decades.
- Trust made sense when both sides could assume that the other side either did not have the capacity or would not rapidly deploy troops in strategic positions at the border.
- With the building of infrastructure on both sides, this trust was bound to break.
- Even after temporary disengagement, both sides will now have distrust about the deployment of the other side.
- An infrastructure-thick environment will require a permanent presence and closer deployments.
Challenges
- At the level of the army, India seems to have consistently misread the PLA’s intentions.
- The closer the armies get, the greater the risks.
- There is a political logic that does not bode well. There is still speculation on why the Chinese are taking an aggressive posture.
- The very fact that we are not sure of Chinese motives means it is hard to know their endgame.
Chinese fears
- At a basic level, they will want to secure their interests in CPEC.
- Tibet issue has also been a sensitive issue for China.
- Chinese interest in Nepal is less to encircle India. It is to ensure Nepal is not used as a staging ground of resistance in Tibet.
Tibet issues in India-China relations
- On Tibet issue India is in an awkward situation.
- Due to the presence of the Dalai Lama in India, China will see it as a potential threat to its cultural hegemony in Tibet.
- Ladakh and Tawang are also important pieces in that cultural consolidation.
- The Sino-India peaceful relations were premised on keeping the Tibet issue in check.
- But just as we are not sure of Chinese motives, they may not be sure of our motives either.
New paradigm in India’s foreign policy
- India growing power means it needs a new paradigm of foreign policy.
- This policy will supposedly safeguard India’s interests more assertively.
- If diplomatically not well managed, this change also causes great uncertainty in the international system.
- India’s Pakistan policy is premised entirely on keeping them guessing on what we might do, including possible military options and altering the territorial status quo.
- Our domestic ideological articulation of India’s position ranges from reclaiming PoK to Aksai Chin.
- We cannot abandon Tibetans.
- This underscores a narrative of uncertainty over our intentions.
Conclusion
Our own trumpeted departure from the past, without either the diplomatic preparation, domestic political discipline, and full anticipation of military eventualities, does not make it easy for others to understand our endgame.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST compensation cess
Mains level: Paper 3- GST compensation
The economic disruption due to pandemic has made the issue of GST compensation bone of contention between the Centre and the States. This article argues that it is the GST Council and not the Centre which is responsible to find ways to raise the revenue in such a situation.
GST revenue loss and role of the Centre
- Due to global pandemic, one significant area of loss of revenue to both the Centre and the states is GST.
- The states have the comfort of assured 14 per cent growth through the compensation mechanism.
- The Centre has no such guarantee.
- The Compensation Act mandates compensating the states for revenue loss on GST implementation from the Compensation Fund.
Role of GST Council
- The course of action to be adopted in the event of the amount in the Fund falling short of requirements was discussed at length in the GST Council.
- The late Arun Jaitley, then chairman, had, in the 8th meeting, assured that “in case Compensation Fund fell short of the compensation payable, the GST Council shall decide the mode of raising additional resources including borrowing from the market which could be repaid by collection of cess in the sixth year or further subsequent years”; the Council had agreed to this suggestion.
- Quite clearly, it is the Council and not the Government of India that shall decide the mode of raising additional resources in the event of a shortfall and this is reflected in Section 10(1) of the Compensation Act.
Why it makes sense for the States to borrow
- It is argued that borrowings by the Centre or by the states make no difference in the context of fiscal discipline.
- The argument further adds that the Centre should borrow in view of its higher borrowing and debt-servicing capacity and its ability to borrow at lower rates.
- Article 292 (1) mandates that the Centre can borrow on the security of the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI).
- However, the idea of providing compensation to the states from the Consolidated Fund of India was not agreed to in the Council, it is difficult to agree with the suggestion that GoI borrows on the basis of the said CFI.
- Large borrowings by the Centre would push up the bond yield rates, pushing up bond yield of the states setting off a spiral leading to hike in the interest rates for businesses and individuals.
- The states’ borrowing would become costlier if the Centre were to borrow for this purpose.
- The borrowing capacity of the states, too, is not very inferior.
- The RBI study of state finances shows that the debt receipts of all the states as a percentage of GDP has hovered between 2.4 per cent and 3.6 per cent during the last four years.
- The states have on the average borrowed just about 1.25 per cent of the GSDP thus far.
- The states are consistently borrowing less than they can borrow (legally and financially).
- The cost of state borrowings for this purpose can be considerably lowered if arranged through a special window.
- The Centre has already breached the budgeted borrowing limits for the current year.
- Thus it makes sense for the states to borrow.
Borrowing options for the States
- There are two ways in which the States can borrow.
- 1) Borrowing the entire shortfall in the revenue.
- 2) Borrowing only the shortfall attributable to GST implementation with the remaining shortfall to be made good from the Cess Fund post the transition period.
- Certain conditionalities have been relaxed for option-1.
- However, borrowing the entire shortfall, as envisaged in option-1, will hurt both the markets and the private sector, pushing up the interest rate.
- The single window under option-1 being arranged by the Centre and the entire debt being serviced from future cess receipts will ensure that the cost remains close to the G-sec rate.
- Moreover, there will be no variation in the interest rate as between the states.
Conclusion
The states should come forward and work with the Centre in the true spirit of cooperative federalism that the Council has come to be known for these past few years.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Blockchain
Mains level: Paper 2- Idea of using blockchain technology for remote voting
The article analyses the pros and cons of the adoption of blockchain technology for remote voting.
Background
- The Election Commission of India has been exploring the idea of further digitising the electoral infrastructure of the country.
- In furtherance of this, it explored the possibility of using blockchain technology for the purpose of enabling remote elections.
What will be the benefits
- ‘Remote voting’ would appear to benefit internal migrants and seasonal workers, who account for roughly 51 million of the populace (Census 2011).
- The envisioned solution might also be useful for some remotely-stationed members of the Indian armed forces.
Key issues
- Electors would still have to physically reach a designated venue in order to cast their vote,
- Digitisation and interconnectivity introduce additional points of failure external to the processes which exist in the present day.
- Blockchain solutions rely heavily on the proper implementation of cryptographic protocols.
- If security is breached, it could unmask the identity and voting preferences of electors, or worse yet, allow an individual to cast a vote as someone else.
- The provisioning of a dedicated line may make the infrastructure less prone to outages, it may also make it increasingly prone to targeted Denial-of-Service attack.
- Digitised systems may also stand to exclude and disenfranchise certain individuals due to flaws in interdependent platforms, flaws in system design, as well as general failures caused by external factors.
Way forward
- Political engagement could perhaps be improved by introducing and improving upon other methods, such as postal ballots or proxy voting.
- Another proposed solution to this issue includes the creation of a ‘One Nation, One Voter ID’ system.
Consider the question “What are the opportunities and challenges in the adoption of blockchain technology. Suggest the other alternatives to enable the ballot portability.”
Conclusion
Adoption of technology should be weighed against the risk it carries in the electoral process. While the adoption of blockchain technology offers many opportunities, the concerns it raises must be addressed before its adoption.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Defining a farmer
The article analyses the issues of multiple definitions of a farmer. The issues of ownership as a criterion for being a farmer and its impact on tenant farmers in discussed.
Is land ownership right criterion
- Traditionally, land ownership is a mandatory criterion for availing benefits under various agricultural schemes in India.
- Laws governing land leasing operate at different levels across India.
- The Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016 was introduced to formalise land leasing.
- However, except a few States, a majority of State governments have not extended the scope of the Act to farmers.
- According to the 2015-16 agricultural census, about 2.65 million operational holdings are either partially or wholly leased.
How this impact tenants
- The impact of agrarian distress is felt disproportionately by tenant farmers.
- The tenant farmer incurs the costs and faces the risks, while the owner receives the rent, subsidies and other support.
- The lessees do not benefit from loan waivers, moratorium and institutional credit, and are forced to be at the mercy of moneylenders.
- The distress is reflected in the fact that tenant farmers account for a majority of farmer suicides reported in the NCRB data.
Multiple definitions of farmers
- There are multiple definitions for a ‘farmer’ in official data published by the Government of India.
- The population census defines ‘cultivators’ as a person engaged in cultivation of land either ‘owned’ or held in kind or share.
- The 59th round of the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of farmers also stresses on ‘possession of land’ either owned or leased or otherwise possessed for defining ‘farmers’.
- Delinking of land as the defining criterion for a ‘farmer’ was done in the 70th round of SAS carried out by the NSSO.
- The 70th Round of NSSO refined the definition of a farmer as one who earns a major part of the income from farming.
Conclusion
Access to land as a policy instrument in bringing about equitable growth of rural economies needs no further emphasis. However, until the time ‘land to the tiller’ remains just wishful thinking, adopting a broader definition of a ‘farmer’ is a short-term solution to ensure inclusive and sustainable growth.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Bt cotton
After almost 20 years of adoption of Bt cotton in India, its time to review the claimed benefits of the Bt.
Hybrid cotton seeds and issues
- Until the 20th century the indigenous ‘desi’ variety, Gossypium arboreum was used.
- From the 1990s, hybrid varieties of G. hirsutum were promoted.
- These hybrids cannot resist a variety of local pests and require more fertilizers and pesticides.
- Cotton suffers from plenty of infestation from moth pests such as the Pink Bollworm (PBW) and sap-sucking (Hemipteran) pests such as aphids and mealy bugs.
- With increasing pressure to buy hybrid seeds, the indigenous varieties have lost out over the years.
Resistant pests and introduction of Bt cotton
- The increasing use of synthetic man-made pesticides to control pests and the rising acreage under the American long-duration cotton led to the emergence of resistant pests.
- Resistant Pink and even American Bollworm (ABW), a minor pest in the past, began increasing, leading to a growing use of a variety of pesticides.
- Rising debts and reducing yields, coupled with increasing insect resistance, worsened the plight of cotton farmers.
- It was in this setting that Bt cotton was introduced in India in 2002.
What is Bt cotton
- The plant containing the pesticide gene from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), has been grown in India for about twenty years.
- This pesticide, now produced in each Bt plant cell, ought to protect the plant from bollworm, thereby increasing yields and reducing insecticide spraying on the cotton plant.
Review of the utility of Bt cotton
- Review was published in the scientific journal Nature Plants, analysing the entire picture of the use of Bt cotton in India.
- Earlier studies had attributed to Bt the tripling of cotton yield between 2002-2014 in India.
- However, one detail that raises concerns over such a conclusion was that yield differences between farmers who were the early adopters of Bt cotton and those who were not suffered from selection bias.
- Controlling for such bias showed (in 2012) that the contribution of Bt cotton to yield increase was only about 4% each year.
- Since yields vary annually by over 10%, the benefits claimed were dubious.
- There are discrepancies between yield and the deployment of Bt cotton.
- For instance, the Bt acreage was only 3.4% of the total cotton area in 2003, not sufficient to credit it for the 61% increase in yield in 2003-2004.
- The rise in cotton yields can be explained by improvements in irrigation, for instance in Gujarat, and a dramatic growth across the country in the use of fertilizers.
- The PBW developed a resistance by 2009 in India. In a few years, the situation was dreadful.
- A technology that works in the lab may fail in fields since real-world success hinges on multiple factors.
Way forward
- The cost of ignoring ‘desi’ varieties for decades has been high for India.
- Research suggests that with pure-line cotton varieties, high density planting, and short season plants, cotton yields in India can be good and stand a better chance at withstanding the vagaries of climate change.
- But government backing for resources, infrastructure and seeds is essential.
Conclusion
It is time to pay attention to science and acknowledge that Bt cotton has failed in India, and not enter into further misadventures with other Bt crops such as brinjal or herbicide resistance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NAM
Mains level: Paper 2- Finding alternative to non-alignment in India's foreign policy
The article analyses role of non-alignment in India’s foreign policy and India’s struggle to find the alternative to the non-alignment.
Background
- Non-alignment was a policy fashioned during the Cold War, to retain the autonomy of policy between two politico-military blocs.
- The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) provided a platform for newly independent developing nations to join together to protect this autonomy.
- NAM campaigned for de-colonisation, universal nuclear disarmament and against apartheid.
- After the end of the Cold War, the NAM countries were able to diversify their network of relationships across the erstwhile east-west divide.
Non-alignment and India’s foreign policy in the present context
- For a few years now, non-alignment has not been projected by our policymakers as a tenet of India’s foreign policy.
- India has not yet found a universally accepted alternative to the non-alignment yet.
- “Strategic autonomy” as an alternative soon acquired a connotation similar to non-alignment, with an anti-U.S. tint.
- Multi-alignment has not found universal favour, since it may convey the impression of opportunism, whereas we seek strategic convergences.
- Seeking issue-based partnerships or coalitions is a description that has not stuck.
- “Advancing prosperity and influence” was a description External Affairs minister settled for, to describe the aspirations that our network of international partnerships seeks to further.
Role of geography and politics
- Two major imperatives flow from India’s geography-1) economic and security interests in the Indo-Pacific space. 2) the strategic importance of the continental landmass to its north and west.
- The Indo-Pacific has inspired the Act East policy of bilateral and multilateral engagements in Southeast Asia and East Asia and the Pacific.
- Shared India-U.S. interests in dealing with the challenge from China in the maritime domain have been a strategic underpinning of the bilateral partnership since the early 2000s.
Issues in India’s engagement with the U.S.
- In the immediate-term, Indian and U.S. perspectives are less convergent in India’s continental neighbourhood.
- Connectivity and cooperation with Afghanistan and Central Asia need engagement with Iran and Russia, as well as with the Russia-China dynamics in the region.
- Russia extends to the Eurasian landmass bordering India’s near and extended neighbourhood.
- A close Russia-China partnership should move India to broad-base relations with Russia.
- A strong stake in relations with India could reinforce Russia’s reluctance to be a junior partner of China.
- As the U.S. confronts the challenge to its dominance from China, classical balance of power considerations would dictate accommodation with Russia.
- U.S. should see ties with India as a joint venture not an alliance in which they could pursue shared objectives to mutual benefit and accept that differences of perspectives will have to be addressed.
- This template could have wider applicability for bilateral relations in today’s world order, which former could be described as militarily unipolar, economically multipolar and politically confused.
- The U.S. could acknowledge that India’s development of trade routes through Iran which could provide it route to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan and Russia, respectively.
Consider the question “India has not been able to find an alternative to NAM which has been described as the basic tenet of India’s foreign policy. Discuss.”
Conclusion
India should find the alternative to the non-alignment which accommodate its interest in relations with the U.S. at the same time allow it “strategic autonomy”.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Electoral reforms and the importance of strong local governments.
The article analyses the issues faced by democracy in India and suggests the way out in the form of strong local governments.
Issues being faced by Indian democracy
1. Issue of use of money power
- Around the world, electoral democracies face the issues of funding political parties and elections.
- Money is required to win elections legitimately, even when people are not bribed to vote, which is illegitimate.
- Communications with citizens can be very expensive.
- Advertisements have to be paid for as well as teams of professionals for managing social media.
- The race to raise more money for legitimate electioneering purposes can corrupt the process of funding parties and elections.
- Solutions are not easy because the right to free speech cannot be denied.
2.Issues with deliberations by the representatives
- Debates within India’s Parliament hardly inspire citizens’ confidence in their representatives’ ability to govern the country.
- The problem in electoral democracies is also in the conduct of their deliberations when they come together.
- This problem is not due to the quality of the individuals, it is inherent in the design of the process for electing representatives.
- Representatives of the people must be chosen by smaller electorates within geographical constituencies.
- But when they meet together in the national chamber, they are expected to govern the whole country.
- They must shed the interest of their constituency and consider what will be best for the whole country.
- Constituency favouring leads to challenges for equitable solutions for sharing of river waters, and to railway stations.
- Electing good representatives to Assemblies is not enough to ensure good decisions will be made.
3.Role of political parties: Lack of inner democracies
- Function of parties: Political parties in electoral democracies provide a solution to the problem of creating an alignment of views among representatives from hundreds of constituencies around the country.
- A party’s point of view on fundamental matters can unite many.
- However, when there are too many parties and too many contradictory points of view to be accommodated within a coalition, governance can break down.
- Therefore, political parties are not evil.
- However, when political parties are not internally democratic, they become a source to amass power and wealth, and democratic nations suffer.
So, should we adopt direct form of democracy
- For the reason stated above, it has become very difficult in representative democracies to arrive at good and fair decisions for the governance of a large state or country.
- New Internet technologies make adoption of direct form of democracy possible.
- But, if all voters have not understood what is at stake, they cannot decide well this is what happened in hasty Brexit referendum.
Way Forward
1.Need for the strong local governance
- Complex issues, where many interests collide, must be resolved by reason, not settled by the numbers.
- Hence there is no alternative to good local governance, wherein citizens manage their local affairs democratically.
- One-size solutions devised by experts at the centre cannot fit all.
- Local systems solutions are essential to solve global systemic problems of environmental sustainability and inclusive growth.
2.Funding and Intra-Party Democracy related reforms
- Electoral funding must be cleaned up, and democracy within political parties improved to make representative democracy work better.
- This will require big changes to entrenched systems.
- Citizens must appreciate that they have to be the source of solutions, and not become only the source of problems.
- Citizens must learn to listen to each other’s perspectives in their villages and in their urban neighbourhoods.
What are the challenges the electoral process in India faces? Suggest the solution to the issues democracy in India faces.
Conclusion
Since India’s Independence 73 years ago when the power of government was transferred from a centre in London to a centre in Delhi, strong local governance remains the unfinished agenda to make India’s democracy strong and deep.
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The article analyses the issue of socioeconomic disruption caused by the pandemic and response by regionally coordinated response to it.
Context
- With continued lockdown measures and restricted borders, countries in Asia and the Pacific have been experiencing sharp drops in foreign exchange inflows due to declines in export earnings, remittances, tourism and FDI.
Financing 3 key areas by the U.N.
- The United Nations is contributing through a global initiative, Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond.
- The initiative aims at comprehensive financing strategy to safeguard the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Governments are united to ensure that adequate financial resources are available to steer an inclusive, sustainable and resilient post-COVID-19 recovery.
- In the Asia-Pacific region, several countries have already adopted financing plans in following three key areas.
- 1) To address the challenge of diminished fiscal space and debt vulnerability 2) To ensure sustainable recovery, consistent with the ambitions of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 3) To harness the potential of regional cooperation in support of financing for development.
Regional Conversation series by ESCAP
- The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has recently launched its first-ever Regional Conversation Series on Building Back Better.
- In this series ministers, decision-makers, private sectors and heads of international agencies participate.
- Their participation results in sharing of collective insights on sharing pathways to resilient recovery from health pandemic and economic collapse.
Debt Service Suspension initiative
- To manage high levels of debt distress global initiatives like the Debt Service Suspension initiative is timely.
- Central banks can continue to keep the balance of supporting the economy and maintaining financial stability.
- This further involves enhancing tax reforms and improving debt management capacities, while using limited fiscal space to invest in priority sectors.
- Exploring sustainability-oriented bonds and innovative financing instruments options such as debt swaps for SDG investment should be explored further.
- Policy paradigm must mainstream affordable, accessible and green infrastructure standards.
- We should also scale up the use of digital technology and innovative applications.
- The financing support of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises must go hand in hand with these national job-rich recovery strategies.
Role of regional cooperation
- Regionally coordinated financing policies can restart trade, reorganise supply chains and revitalise sustainable tourism in a safe manner.
- Across Asia and the Pacific, governments must pool financial resources to create regional investment funds.
- Role of egional cooperation platforms to ensure all countries receive an equitable number of doses of the vaccine is essential.
Conclusion
Through ESCAP, we can scale these efforts across the region, working closely with our member states, the private sector and innovators to build a collective financing response to mobilise the necessary additional resources.
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