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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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2-Judiciary and relations with executive
The relations between the judiciary and executive have always been tumultuous. This article analyses the changes in the judiciary’s relations with the executive after 2014.
Relations with executive
- In 2014 government blocked the elevation of Gopal Subramanium as a judge of the apex court.
- A month later, the government introduced a bill to create the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
- The NJAC Act was passed by Parliament in December 2014.
- In October 2015, the SC struck down the NJAC Act, ruling that it would affect the independence of the judiciary vis-à-vis the executive.
- Following striking down of the NJAC Act, the SC directed the government to propose a new memorandum of procedure (MoP) for appointments to the higher judiciary.
- The draft government sent to the Court allowed the government to reject any name recommended by the Collegium on grounds of national security and made it compulsory for the Collegium to justify its selection.
- The Collegium rejected these clauses and the MoP could never be finalised.
- The government sat on the appointments that the Collegium had recommended months ago.
- In April 2016, 170 proposals for appointments to the high courts were pending at that time.
SC’s perceived reluctance to question executive after 2017
- Appointments and transfers ceased to be a problem because the Collegium accepted the appointments and transfers.
- The Court considered that the Aadhaar Bill could be passed as a Money Bill, validated the Electoral Bonds Act.
- The SC also abstained from dealing with sensitive issues like the abolition of Article 370 or the Citizenship Amendment Act.
- This modus operandi of the court, when applied to Aadhaar, created a fait accompli.
3 questions over the SC’s role
- 1) The court’s reluctance to question the government on contentious issues — from J&K to misuse of sedition law or the NRC — is disturbing.
- 2) The manner in which the judiciary has addressed allegations against itself — Kalikho Pul or Prasad Education Trust or on sexual harassment — gives a handle to those in power.
- 3) The independence of the judiciary is inevitably affected by the acceptance of post-retirement jobs.
Consider the question “While playing its role, judiciary faces several challenges from the other organs of the democracy. In light of this, examine the challenges judiciary in India faces from the executive.”
Conclusion
Supreme Court’s apparent reluctance to question government on consequential issues affects its moral authority.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Tax reforms
The article discusses two recent measures announced by the government to bring in the transparency in the tax system.
Issue of lower tax collection and way out
- An economic contraction this year will severely impact tax collections.
- Changing tax rates or the tax base in response is difficult and a hurried approach can have wider consequences.
- So, the only tool available is to urge voluntary compliance.
- Compliance is achieved through a fine balance between enforcement and encouragement.
- Despite enforcement-driven measures in the past the taxpaying population has remained at only 6 per cent.
- Thus, the only way to boost collections is to build trust between the administration and the taxpayer.
Relation between complexity of system and compliance
- A taxpayer has to interact with the tax system at numerous instances.
- While interacting, if the taxpayer perceives the system to be complex, such perception affects compliance.
- Perceived complexity can discourage individuals from filing returns.
- This could reflect simply in the difference between the number of taxpayers and the returns filed: which is around 20 million.
- Such behaviour is bound to impact tax collection.
Recent government measures to bring transparency
1) New taxpayer’s charter with some new features
- The charter is a document that lists a taxpayer’s rights and obligations.
- A taxpayer’s charter is often perceived as a means to build taxpayer’s trust.
- The rights and obligations mentioned in India’s new charter are in line with global practices.
- There are 3 interesting additions in the new charter: 1) commitment to reducing compliance costs 2) holding its authorities accountable 3) publishing a periodic report of service standards.
- A tax ombudsman can ensure that some of these standards are met, however, in 2019, the cabinet approved the abolition of the quasi-judicial post.
2) Faceless assessment
- This relates to the frequent complaint of taxpayers about corruption and delay.
- To end personal interface, e-assessment was introduced in 2019.
- Developing this idea further, faceless assessment now seeks to further automate the case selection and the distribution function of the assessing officer.
- The intent is to divest and distribute the functions of a single assessing officer so that assessment is carried out in a fair manner.
Consider the question “What are the factors responsible for low tax compliance in India? What are the steps taken by the government to increase compliance?
Conclusion
If the commitment to a fair and impartial system and a time-bound resolution of matters is to be met, the new processes, with reviews and anonymity, must ensure efficiency in case selection and consistency in assessment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mission Karmayogi
Mains level: Paper 2- Mission Karmayogi
The Mission Karmayogi seeks to overhaul the bureaucracy in the country. The article discusses its aims and the challenges it could face.
Context
- The Union cabinet’s approval of Mission Karmayogi has raised the hope of a national bureaucracy that is adequately responsive to the country’s needs.
Need for the overhaul
- The system’s focus needs to be role- rather than rule-specific,
- Coordination should prevail over battles for control, and IAS officers ought to be enablers instead of red-tape wrappers.
- There has been a near consensus in the country that our system of policy implementation needs an overhaul.
What is Mission Karmayogi
- It is an upskilling initiative for government officials that aims to fix and galvanize India’s administration.
- As envisaged, the Karmayogi training mechanism will cover an estimated 4.6 million officials at all levels.
- Due to the scale of the exercise elaborate multi-tier command structure is expected to be put in place for it.
- At its apex would be a Human Resource Council, headed by the Prime Minister.
- Human Resource Council shall approve and monitor various skill-enhancing programmes as well as review the performance of employees routinely.
Challenges
- Given the way our bureaucracy has operated for decades, Mission Karmayogi is likely to prove disruptive.
- The idea of being subject to continuous evaluation by a central authority could unsettle some officers.
- There has been some disquiet within IAS ranks over the Centre’s lateral induction of people for senior roles, perhaps the new mission will resolve such disgruntlement.
Conclusion
Gentralized supervision of such large numbers does not promise to be easy. Globally, centralization has been observed to militate against diversity of thought. And that’s vital to the governance of a country like India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Role and accountability of legislature
Mains level: Paper 2- Role of key organs of democracy during pandemic
The article analyses the impact of pandemic on the functioning legislatures and issues its implications.
Context
- Due to coronavirus pandemic, several States have held very short sessions in which they ratified a number of ordinances and hardly questioned any executive action over the last few months.
Role of Parliament and Court
- The government has the mandate to take decisions and perform various public tasks.
- Government in turn is accountable to the legislature which can question it, and, as an extreme step, even replace it.
- The legislature is accountable to citizens through regular elections.
- Finally, constitutional courts are expected to ensure that all actions are made within the boundaries of the Constitution and laws made by the legislature.
Dilution of the role of Parliament in India
- Indian Parliament has allowed its role to be diluted over the last few decades.
- It has not questioned and monitored the activity of the executive.
- Comparison with British Parliament: The United Kingdom’s joint parliamentary committee on human rights examined the proposals of a contact tracing app.
- The committee recommended that an app could be used only if there was specific primary legislation to enable it.
- India, in contrast, rolled out Aarogya Setu through executive decision, and has created a grey zone on whether it is mandatory or not.
- Parliament should recover lost ground by fulfilling its constitutionally mandated role.
Lack of parliamentary oversight during pandemic
- Parliament will be meeting after 175 days.
- 175 days’ is the longest gap without intervening general elections and just short of the six-month constitutional limit.
- During the pandemic, over 900 central and nearly 6,000 State government notifications have been issued
- Parliamentary committees did not meet for about four months.
- This is unlike many other countries where both the plenary and committees have adopted technology to enable members to participate from home.
Judicial intervention in policy issues
- The lack of parliamentary oversight has been compounded by judicial intervention in many policy issues.
- For example, the government’s actions related to the lockdown should have been questioned by Parliament.
- However, this was taken to the Supreme Court, which is not equipped and mandated to balance policy options.
- Directions of the Court have to be followed which removes flexibility needed to tackle evolving issues with implementation.
- Consider another case, Court decided to limit the period in which telecom companies have to pay their dues to the government, and overruled a cabinet decision.
- This is a policy matter that balances interests of telecom companies, consumers and banks.
- This issue is best judged by the government with oversight by Parliament.
- And court should step in if there is an illegality.
Way forward
- Several events have taken place over the last six months that need thorough discussion.
- This includes ways to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, economic growth which has had a sharp fall in the first quarter of this fiscal year.
- This has far-reaching implications for creating jobs, stability of the banking system, and government finances.
- The government is likely to bring in a supplementary budget; indeed, a fresh look at the Union Budget may be required given the changes in basic assumptions since January.
- The situation at the China border also needs to be discussed.
Consider the question “Anlyse the impact of pandemic on the key organs of the democracy.”
Conclusion
Parliamentarians have a duty towards Indian citizens to fulfil their role in scrutinising the work of the government and guiding policy. Despite the curtailed session and the constraints due to the coronavirus, they should make the best of the limited time to do so. They need to wrest back their rightful role in our democracy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hindu Succession Act 1956 and amendments
Mains level: Paper 2- The Supreme Court judgement making daughters coparcener in her own right
The article highlights the importance of the latest Supreme Court Judgement making daughter coparcener in own right by birth removing the conditions laid down in the previous judgement.
Background
- In Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020), the Supreme Court held that a coparcener’s daughter would become a coparcener in her own right by birth.
Amendment in 2005 and related SC judgement
- There is a difference between rights conferred by the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 and the amendment to that act in 2005.
- In 1956 Act, equal right of succession at par with a son was given to a daughter, but only after the demise of the father or mother.
- The 2005 amendment gave the right to property to a daughter in a joint Hindu family during the lifetime of the father.
- In Prakash v. Phulavati 2005, the Supreme Court decided on the prospectivity or retrospectivity of the law creating coparcenary rights in favour of daughters.
- It created a condition that the rights under the amendment are applicable only to living daughters of living coparceners as on September 9, 2005; however, it gave no reason as to why this was chosen as a condition.
- The status of a daughter to be subject to her father being alive is apparently a mistake.
- The death of an individual should not determine the rights of their heirs.
- If any right had accrued in the daughter’s favour by a legislation, the same can’t be disturbed by death of her father.
What the SC said in latest judgement
- In the present judgment, Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma , the court rightly held that as laid down in Section 6 (1) (a), daughter is to be a coparcener by birth; so there is no question of being prospective or retrospective.
- It is the physical status that matters and should not be linked to a date.
- Even in the case of unregistered partition deeds executed before December 20, 2004, the court has opened a new window for daughters.
- Daughters can claim a right even in an unregistered partition deed which has not been proved conclusively.
Conclusion
There is a need to examine all the existing laws and wherever discriminatory practices exist, they need to be amended appropriately.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Personal data and non-personal data
Mains level: Paper 3- Making open data-society by sharing making open the data collected by the government
The article highlights the importance of non-personal data collected by the government and lack of any reference to it in the Gopalakrishnan Committee report.
Background
- The Committee of Experts on the Non-Personal Data Governance Framework headed by K Gopalakrishnan has recommended making privately held non-personal data “open”.
- This has raised concerns about state interference in the private data ecoystem.
Importance of data collected by government agencies
- The report is a missed opportunity to address the governance frameworks around data created by government agencies.
- Some of the most important non-personal data sets are held by the government, or result from taxpayer funding.
- Such data can be useful in either framing public policy or creating and providing new services.
Why government data should be open to citizens: 5 Reasons
- First, the state should be transparent about information that it has. This will improve accountability.
- Second, if taxpayer money has funded any of the data sets, then it is an obligation of the state to return the fruits of that funding to the taxpayer.
- Third, by permitting the reuse of government data sets, we avoid the need for duplication.
- Fourth, government data sets, curated according to publicly verified standards, can lead to increased confidence in data quality and increased usage.
- Finally, free flow of information can have beneficial effects on society in general.
Government policies promoting openness of data
- The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, mandates the disclosure of government data on a suo moto basis.
- One of the nine pillars of the Digital India Policy is “information for all”.
- The National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), 2012 requires all non-sensitive information held by public authorities to be made publicly accessible in machine readable formats (subject to conditions).
- The government has also set up an Open Government Data Platform to provide open access to data sets held by ministries and other agencies of the government.
- Various States have also either created their own data portals or have provided data sets to the Open Government Data Platform.
Challenges in making the data open to society
- There are two reasons for our failure to create an open data-based society.
- The first is lack of clarity in some of the provisions of the NDSAP or the relevant implementation guidelines.
- The second is the inability to enforce guidelines appropriately.
- Data sets released by governments are often inconsistent, incomplete, outdated, published in non-machine readable or inconsistent formats, include duplicates, and lack quality (or any) metadata, thereby reducing re-usability.
Issues with Gopalakrishnana Committee Report
- The Gopalakrishnan Committee could have evaluated what is going wrong with existing policies and practice pertaining to government data.
- The report is a missed opportunity to address the governance frameworks around non-personal data sets in a country created by government agencies, or those resulting from taxpayer money.
- The report largely focuses on the dangers posed by data collection by private sector entities.
- This has raised concerns about state interference in the private data ecoystem.
- Many of the concerns that should be addressed in the report that are central to the governance of the data ecosystem have remained in the background.
- For instance, India’s cybersecurity framework continues to be inadequate, while even the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee report of 2018 highlighted the need to restrict the growing power of the state to carry out surveillance.
Consider the question “What are the key recommendation made by the Gopalakrishnan Committee for the regulation of non-personal data? What are the shortcomings in of the report in your opinion?”
Conclusion
Since data governance is a relatively new concept in India, the government would be better served in taking an incremental approach to any perceived problems. This should begin with reforming how the government itself deals with citizens’ data.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Financial challenges education sector faces in India
The article delineates the challenges academic institutions in India faces in the wake of Covid disruption and suggests some measures to deal with the challenges.
Context
Disruption in the wake of pandemic raised the spectre of educational institutions shuttering their doors completely or taking unprecedented steps that have invariably affected jobs and livelihoods.
Economics of the academics
- Economics has always been a part of academics; it is only in the present circumstances that it has become all the more apparent.
- Management in private institutions, is going to meet demands on the one hand and availability of resources on the other.
- One may call this new phenomenon “acadonomics”.
- “Acadonomics” would imply a careful allocation of resources keeping in mind the transient nature of the issue of how long it is going to take to come back to the steady state of affairs that it once was.
- ‘Acadonomics’ will also involve seeing the economics of moving on to an online mode of the teaching-learning process.
Comparison with the West
- The academic choices are not the same for all countries across the world.
- In the United States the elite private and state subsidised universities have endowments that can be used for a range of academic activities.
- Top 10 of the U.S. have a cushion of anywhere between $10 billion to $40 billion.
- By contrast, private academic institutions in India do not have any such buffers.
- None of the institutions in India possesses big corpuses from alumni or industry.
- Their survival, for the most part, is on the annual income that comes from tuition and the assortment of other fees collected.
Private education in India
- Private institutions in India are hardly in a position to meet an eventuality such as COVID-19.
- In an educational set-up in India, nothing can be reduced — the norms cannot be lowered nor can the infrastructure be dismantled.
- For the most part, the fixed and operational costs remain the same, and infrastructure once created cannot be shrunk.
- The downside to self-financed institutions is that in the time of the pandemic and loss of jobs, students plead inability to pay the requisite fee.
- Which places additional burden on the management which feels already stretched because of existing commitments.
Dual mode of learning and issues
- 1) Cost for persisting with a dual mode of the teaching-learning process is going to be quite prohibitive for the next few years.
- The scaling of operations that would include the dual modes of online and offline is going to be expensive.
- 2) The online teaching mode brings with it increased costs of IT infrastructure such as network bandwidth, servers, cloud resources and software licensing fees.
- 3) Online teaching means new hiring in the IT sector and increased costs due to engagements with Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, and other online platforms.
- 4) Online teaching means setting up multiple studios and educational technology centres which translate into investments in high technology.
- 5) Creation of virtual laboratories across all domains of studies and examination centres, etc. would add to the woes in terms of already depleted finances.
- 6) Additional funds have to be allocated to train faculty for online teaching.
Way forward
- The Centre and State governments should provide soft loans to students to stay with the educational course.
- Students looking at online instruction would be disinclined to pay the same fee charged for offline instruction.
- It would seem prudent for the government and regulatory bodies to not interfere in the fee structure, and, for the future, even consider a measure of higher degree of financial autonomy.
- It is high time institutions in India are allowed to create coffers or corpuses for a rainy day.
- Educational institutions could come to be treated like any other corporate body, with an allowable small margin of profit.
Consider the question “What are the challenges faced by the education system in the aftermath of the pandemic. Suggest ways to mitigate the impact.”
Conclusion
‘Acadonomics’ of the future will not only decide the fate of the academic sector in India but also its quality, ranking, research, innovation potential and its collective impact on our country’s economy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Widening consumer base to revive growth
The article suggests the widening of consumer base rather than increasing consumption. To augment that, the government should also direct the spending towards such sectors which would help in broadening of the base.
Prescription for long term growth: Broadening the consumer base
- India entered the pandemic with declining growth and limited scope for a conventional and large fiscal stimulus.
- The NSS 68th round consumption survey indicates that in urban India, the top 20 per cent of the population accounted for nearly 55 per cent of discretionary consumption and 45 per cent of all consumption.
- The narrow consumption base coupled with uncertainty over the demographic dividend could belie India’s long-term investment attractiveness.
- With or without the pandemic, the prescriptions for long-term growth remain the same — broaden the consumer base.
- This broadening of the consumer base should happen through empowering the low and middle-income consumers.
Why can’t the government just spend to revive growth
- 1) Temporary incomes coupled with job/income uncertainty will induce precautionary savings without any impact on growth.
- 2) With revenues declined, funding of additional expenditure is through higher borrowings.
- Any incremental debt should be seen in the context of future investments being hampered due to current consumption.
- India’s public debt/GDP will likely reach around 85 per cent and the consolidated gross fiscal deficit to GDP ratio could be around 12.5 per cent this year.
Way forward
- India needs to broaden its consumer base beyond the top 10-20 per cent of the population to improve long-term growth prospects.
- To achieve this we will need well-paid employment for the bottom and middle segments.
- The “safe” group of India’s workforce is extremely small.
- The PLFS 2018-19 report places around 24 per cent of the workforce in the regular wage/salary category.
- Within this segment, around 40 per cent do not have a written contract, paid leaves, or security while 70 per cent do not have any written contract.
- These sharp skews in consumption and labour become a substantial risk for a consumption-led growth in the aftermath of a crisis.
- The PLFS 2018-19 report indicates that around 50 per cent of the rural non-agriculture workforce.
- 35 per cent of the urban workforce is engaged in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
- The rebuild and recover phase should aim for a wider consumer base with infrastructure and manufacturing as the two pillars.
- To make manufacturing easier, the focus should be on labour reforms, fewer/quicker approvals, reducing the compliance burden, and promoting export-oriented sectors.
- Policies should not become too inward-looking such that export promotion becomes difficult.
Directing public spending and policies appropriately
- Most public spending should be directed towards roads, railways, infrastructure, healthcare and educational facilities.
- To promote infrastructure creation along with private sector participation, the government needs to charge an economic price for goods and services such as power, irrigation, and public utilities.
- Establish the rule of law with minimal interference in pricing, streamline processes for quick approvals and ensure timely payments to private operators.
- The government should also signal its vision along with a financing strategy through sharper expenditure management, enhanced market borrowings, setting up of a Development Financing Institution, and an asset monetisation programme.
Conclusion
To achieve economic growth of 7-8 per cent the government needs to start addressing large infrastructure deficit, the weak financial sector, archaic land and labour laws, and the administrative and judicial hurdles.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Extended producer responsibility
Mains level: Paper 3- Coupling growth and environmental protection
Growth and environmental protection are not the polar opposites of each other. The article analyses the issue of balancing the two and using pandemic as an opportunity to evolve novel recovery path.
Pandemic: opportunity to new recovery path
- The pandemic presents an opportunity for us to think of a new recovery path, one that can decouple economic growth and environmental degradation.
- It becomes more important as India sees opportunities on the global call to diversify the supply chain and its internal call for Atmanirbhar Bharat.
- For that, we need to strengthen our production and manufacturing capabilities.
Issue of regulatory infrastructure
- Monitoring and implementing environmental regulations is the biggest challenge we face.
- Take the municipal solid waste rules.
- Two decades after the regulations came into effect, their status not in good shape.
- A comparatively recent regulation, centred around Extended Producer Responsibility, has also posed challenges in monitoring and implementation.
- In a recent ruling, the judiciary not only ruled against the industry but also blamed officials responsible for implementing the regulations.
Focus on implementation and monitoring
- In the long run, diluting regulatory norms will create more adverse impacts resulting in greater community upsurge.
- The focus has to be to improve the system’s capabilities to monitor and implement regulatory requirements.
- There needs to be greater transparency and accountability; there is no dearth of technology to facilitate this.
- The intention and capacity to take action, rectify and diffuse is critical.
- The right ecosystem between the industry, community and regulator is crucial.
- If the three stakeholders remain isolated and get activated only in a crisis, we will not make any progress towards solving the issue.
Way forward
- We need to couple growth and environmental protection.
- Environmental health will be the key enabler of socio-economic growth in the future.
- Industry needs to realise that it is a part of an ecosystem and not at the centre of it.
- Communities get impacted, either positively or negatively, they need to empower themselves through education, so that they are not driven by the agenda of individuals with vested interests.
- We have a challenge in implementing environmental regulations.
- The community does not trust that the industry is meeting its compliance requirements, so, the regulatory system’s role is to improve this trust quotient.
Conclusion
As we plan our recovery past the pandemic, we have a good chance to create a new normal. We need to align towards a common cause and goals. We should not miss this chance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST
Mains level: Paper 3- GST compensation issue and reforms needed
The GST compensation issue raises the need for reform in the system. The article discusses this issue and suggests reform.
Background
- Three years ago, the Centre and the States of the Union of India struck a grand bargain resulting in GST.
- The States gave up their right to collect sales tax and sundry taxes, and the Centre gave up excise and services tax.
Issue of compensation
- Consent of the states was secured by a promise of reimbursing any shortfall in tax revenues for a period of five years.
- This reimbursement was to be funded by a special cess called the GST compensation cess.
- The promised reimbursement was to fill the gap for an assured 14% year on year tax growth for five years.
Why is the Centre denying GST compensation
- As the economy battles a pandemic and recession, the tax collection has dropped significantly.
- At the same time, expenditure needs are sharply higher at the State level.
- Using an equivalent of the Force Majeure clause in commercial contracts, the Centre is abdicating its responsibility of making up for the shortfall in 14% growth in GST revenues to the states.
Why Central government is wrong in denying the compensation
- 1) The States do not have recourse to multiple options that the Centre has.[like sovereign bond or a loan against public sector unit shares from the Reserve Bank of India]
- 2) The Centre can get loans at lower rates of borrowing from the markets as compared to the States.
- 3) In terms of aggregate public sector borrowing, it does not matter for the debt markets, nor the rating agencies, whether it is the States or the Centre that is increasing their indebtedness.
- 4) Fighting this recession through increased fiscal stimulus is basically the job of macroeconomic stabilisation, which is the Centre’s domain.
- 5) Using the alibi of the COVID-19 pandemic causes a serious dent in the trust built up between the Centre and States.
- It will weaken the foundation of cooperative federalism.
Reforms needed
- GST is a destination-based consumption tax, which must include all goods and services with very few exceptions.
- That widening of the tax base itself will allow us to go back to the original recommendation of a standard rate of 12%, to be fixed for at least a five-year period.
- Some extra elbow room for the States’ revenue autonomy could be allowed by States non VATable surcharges on a small list of “sin” goods.
- In the long term there are many changes in consumption patterns, production configurations and locations, which cannot be anticipated and hence a static concept of Revenue Neutral Rate cannot be reference.
- The commitment to a low and stable rate is a must.
- We must recognise the increasing importance of the third tier of government.
- After 28 years of the 73rd and 74th Amendments, the local governments do not have the promised transfer of funds, functions and functionaries.
- Of the 12% GST, 10% should be equally shared between the States and the Centre, and 2% must be earmarked exclusively for the urban and rural local bodies.
- Fresh approach also calls for an overhaul of the interstate GST and the administration of the e-way bill.
Consider the question “Discuss the issue related to GST compensation to the States by the Central government. Suggest the measures changes in the GST regime to deal with flaws.”
Conclusion
GST is a crucial and long-term structural reform which can address the fiscal needs of the future, strike the right and desired balance to achieve co-operative federalism and also lead to enhanced economic growth. The current design and implementation has failed to deliver on that promise. A new grand bargain is needed.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Providing alternative investment destination to China and policy changes in India
The article examines whether India has been proving a favourable alternative to China or not.
Is India becoming alternate supply source and investment destination?
- Despite media reports and strong messaging from Washington, fewer U.S. companies than predicted might quit China.
- Companies focused on the Chinese domestic market rather than as a base for exports will likely remain, at least for now.
- Those that do leave may not choose India as a relocation destination.
- Many U.S. companies with experience working with China are not convinced that India has China’s established industrial base and expertise.
- They also see other Asian countries as more competitive.
India’s strengths
- Democracy: India’s identity as a democratic “un-China” is one of its strongest selling points.
- Strong IPR: There is no threat of stealing of intellectual property rights.
- No coercive tactics: Foreign companies in India are not subject to coercive tactics as in China.
- Institutions: India’s open and vibrant press, an independent judiciary, and other advantages of democratic governance also provide a contrast to China.
- Domestic market:India’s well-off domestic market also attracts foreign investors.
Why China is a favoured destination
- China offers many advantages, such as a manufacturing infrastructure and skill level that allows innovations to move quickly from prototype to product.
- China’s specialised industrial zones are massive, collocating companies, factories, logistics, and even research and universities.
Way forward
1) Focus on the States
- India can start by focusing development in those Indian States that have already demonstrated the ability to produce and export in key sectors.
- Foreign capital could also greatly increase infrastructure funds beyond government spending alone.
- India might also usefully build up new industrial centres with an eye to geography. [for instance-linking the southeast of the country to supply chains in Southeast Asia]
2) Focus on the policy framework
- India should take two great steps-
- 1) Reduce the number of investments needing approval by the Centre.
- 2)To increase intra-Ministry coordination on foreign direct investment policies.
- The same coordination could be extended to the appointment of a high-level official or body in the Prime Minister’s Office.
- This will ensure that all proposed economic policy changes are consistent with the goal of attracting foreign investment.
Conclusion
A policy framework that is transparent, predictable, and provides increased consultations with existing and potential foreign company stakeholders before introducing new Indian economic policies, will play a crucial role in determining India’s foreign investment outlook.
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