Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- India's foreign relation with 'Middle Power' countries-Prospects and opportunities.
Context:
As the world is moving from an era of predictability to an era of unpredictability led by the US and China, a new Middle Power coalition is the need of an hour.
The “Rising India” narrative and challenges
- The narrative was scripted over the two post-Cold War decades, 1991 to 2011.
- Narrative of plural secular democracy: It was based on the improving performance of the economy and India’s political ability to deal with many longstanding diplomatic challenges within a paradigm of realism.
- Three successive prime ministers – scripted the narrative of India rising as a plural, secular democracy, as opposed to China’s rise within an authoritarian system.
- Opening of new vistas: India’s improving economic performance had opened up new vistas for cooperation with major powers and neighbours.
- New challenges to the narrative: Now the economy’s subdued performance and domestic political issues have created new challenges for Indian foreign policy.
- The new approach to relations with India adopted by both President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping has created a more challenging external environment.
Relations with the US
- New demands from the US: Each time New Delhi has tried to meet a US demand, Washington DC has come up with new demands.
- US-China dispute resolution and effects for India: Any resolution of US differences with China, can only reduce whatever little bargaining clout India has.
- Complaint at WTO: The US has, in fact, actively lodged complaints against India at the World Trade Organisation.
- Geopolitical effects for India: On the geopolitical side, US intervention in West Asia has always imposed an additional economic burden on India.
Relations with China
- Consistent policy: There has been continuity and consistency in India-China policy over the past two decades, with some ups and downs.
- Effects of power difference with China: As the bilateral power differential widens, China has little incentive or compulsion to be accommodative of Indian concerns, much less the interests.
- China never fails to remind India of the growing power differential between the two.
- Building strength to deal with China: In dealing with China, India will have to, paraphrasing Deng Xiaoping, “build its strength and bide its time.
Russia’s focus
- It will remain focused on Eurasian geopolitics.
- It will also be concerned with the geo-economics of energy.
- Implications for India: Both these factors define Russia’s relations with China, and increasingly, with Pakistan, posing a challenge for India.
Way forward in the relations with Pakistan
- The government’s Pakistan policy has run its course.
- It yielded some short-term results thanks to Pakistan’s efforts not to get “black-listed” by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
- But the rest of the world is doing business with Pakistan, lending billions in aid.
- The global community may increasingly accept future pleas from Pakistan that terror attacks in India are home-grown.
- related to the situation in Kashmir or concerns about the welfare of Muslims, unless incontrovertible evidence to the contrary is offered.
- The need for a new Pakistan policy: Backchannel talks should be resumed and visas should be given liberally to Pakistani intellectuals, media and entertainers to improve cross-border perceptions as a first step towards improving relations.
The Middle Powers and opportunities for India
- What are the middle powers? It is a mix of developed and developing economies, some friends of the US and other friends of China.
- It is an amorphous group but can emerge into a grouping of the like-minded in a world of uncertainty capable of taming both the US and China.
- A new Middle Powers coalition may be the need of the year.
- Which countries can be part of it? Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam and perhaps South Korea. One could include Russia, Nigeria and South Africa also in this group.
- Stakes involved but no influence: Like India, these countries have a stake in what the US and China do, but little influence over either.
- What India can do? These countries which constitute the part of the Middle Powers should engage the attention of India’s external affairs minister.
Disruptive policies not an option
- Adoption of disruptive approach: There is a view among some policy analysts that India too can adopt a “disruptive” approach as a clever tactic in foreign affairs.
- Disruption is not an end in itself. It has to be a means to an end.
- Powerful nations can afford disruption as tactics.
- Unchanged strategic elements: The strategic elements defining Indian foreign policy in the post-Cold War era have not changed.
- Not an option: India cannot risk such tactics without measuring the risk they pose to strategy.
Conclusion
With the changing geopolitical atmosphere particularly with respect to the US and Chiana, India needs to adopt a suitable approach to its foreign policy especially involving the Middle Powers.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Events in the Middle East, especially involving Iran and its implications for India.
Context
In the aftermath of recent events, Iran needs a new compact to deal with the domestic crisis and also a framework to deal with the US.
The threat of “regime change” in Iran
- The US policy-The temptation for a policy of “regime change” in Iran has never disappeared from the US policy towards Iran.
- The policy is based on the hope that mounting external pressure and deepening internal dissent will combine to produce a “regime collapse” in Tehran.
- US President has often insisted that he is not seeking to overthrow the clerical regime in Tehran led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
- The Us demands were an end to the nuclear and missile programmes, stop supporting terror in the region and end the interference in the internal affairs of its Arab neighbours.
- Iran’s success in fending off these threats: Iran has been successful so far in fending off these external and internal challenges.
- Iran has put down repeated mass uprisings and neutered attempts from within the elite to reform the system.
De-escalation of the tension after the war-like situation
- Fear of escalation: The widespread assessment after the killing of Soleimani was that Iran would inevitably escalate the confrontation.
- Tehran set up a token retaliation for domestic political consumption and quickly called for de-escalation.
- The message of peace from the US: Trump also told the Iranian leaders that America “is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it”.
The shooting of a passenger jet and the aftermath
- The shooting of the jet:
- The Ukrainian passenger jet was shot-down near Tehran killing all 176 passengers and crew on-board.
- It included 82 Iranian nationals and many Canadian citizens of Iranian origin
- After initial denial, Tehran was forced to accept responsibility for shooting down the plane.
- The aftermath of the shooting of the plane
- Protests: Soon after the confession, protests broke out against the government.
- Demand for accountability: Iranians are angry at the attempt of the government to cover up initially and are demanding full accountability.
The general discontent of the people against the government
- The latest round of protests must be seen as a continuation of those that have raged since the end of 2017.
- Reasons for the discontent: Economic grievances, frustration with widespread corruption, demands for liberalising the restrictions on women and political opposition to the regime are the reasons.
- Discontent against external adventures: There was also strong criticism of the government’s costly external adventures in the Middle East amidst the deteriorating economic conditions.
- There is little love for the Revolutionary Guards, the principal face of state oppression.
- External pressure: As the regime cracks down on the protests against the airliner shooting, the external pressures against Iran are only likely to mount.
Available option and their dangers
- As sanctions squeeze the Iranian economy, the costs of regional overreach become apparent, and internal protests become persistent, Khamenei has few good options.
- The option of the new political compact: Offering a new political compact to the people of Iran or a new framework to deal with the Arab neighbours and the US would seem reasonable goals.
- But they involve considerable risk for the regime.
- The option of pragmatism: All revolutionary regimes come to a point when they need to replace ideological fervour with pragmatism.
- But the change from ideological fervour to pragmatism is also the time of the greatest vulnerability for the regime.
Conclusion
India as a friend of Iran will surely begin to debate if privately, the implications of the deepening regime crisis in Iran.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Types of NBFC.
Mains level: Paper 3- NBFC crisis.
Context
While India was trying to deal with the problems arising out of the large NPA accumulated by the commercial banks, the Indian financial sector was dealt with another blow in the form of the NBFC crisis.
Effects of IL&FS and DHFL collapse:
- Balance sheets affected: The collapse of these two big entities affected the balance sheets of banks and mutual fund companies.
- Credit crunch: It also resulted in a credit crunch that dampened demand and pushed a slowing economy towards recession.
- Tarnished image of NBFCs: Being leaders in the industry, their failure has tarnished the image of the NBFC sector as a whole.
Types of NBFCs and their numbers
- Total number: As of September 2019 there were a total 9,642 NBFCs in India.
- Deposit-taking NBFC (NBFCs-D): Only 82 of India’s NBFCs were deposit-taking institutions (NBFCs-D) permitted to mobilise and hold deposits.
- Non-deposit taking NBFCs (NBFCs-ND): The rest of the NBFCs which are not deposit-taking, are categorised as non-deposit taking NBFCs.
- They did not have access to the savings of ordinary households.
- For this reason, the majority of these institutions were not considered to be entities that needed strict regulation
- Systematically important (NBFCs-ND-SI): Of a large number of non-deposit taking NBFCs (NBFCs-ND), only 274 were identified as being systematically important (NBFCs-ND-SI), by virtue of having an asset size of ₹500 crores or more.
Significance of NBFCs as expressed by assets holdings
- A significant player in the financial markets: As at the end of March 2019, these two sets-NBFCs-D and NBFC-ND-SI- held assets that amounted to almost a fifth of that held by the scheduled commercial banks.
- This made them significant players in the web of credit, as well as large enough as a group to affect the health of the financial sector.
- Non-deposit taking NBFCs must rely on resources garnered from the “market,” including the banking system, besides the market for bonds, debentures, and short-term paper.
- Extension of financial entities: Individual investors would only be marginally involved in direct investment in these instruments.
- So, the NBFCs are essentially extensions of the activity of other financial entities such as banks, insurance companies, and mutual funds.
Concentrated lending by NBFCs
- Industry getting lion’s share: Industry accounted for the biggest chunk of lending, amounting to 57% of gross advances in September 2019.
- Much of this lending to industry went to the infrastructural sector.
- At second place-retail sector: A second major target for lending by the NBFCs was the retail sector, with retail loans accounting for 20% of gross advances.
- Within the retail sector, vehicle/auto loans accounted for as much as 44% of loans.
What went wrong?
- Diversification by commercial banks: Following a surge in capital flows into India which began in 2004, banks were flush with liquidity.
- Under pressure to lend and invest to cover the costs of capital and intermediation and earn a profit, banks were looking for new areas into which they could move
- Increase in retail lending by banks: The pressure resulted in a significant increase in retail lending, with lending for housing, automobiles and consumer durables.
- There was also a substantial increase in lending to the infrastructural sector and commercial real estate.
- Why NBFCs flourished even in the face of competition by banks? What the growth of the NBFCs indicates is that banks were unable to exhaust the liquidity at their disposal.
- Banks were also unable to satisfy the potential for lending to these sectors, providing a space for NBFCs to flourish.
- The willingness of NBFCs suited the banks: The willingness of the NBFCs to enter these areas suited the banks in two ways.
- First, it permitted the banks to use their liquidity even when they themselves were stretched and could not discover, scrutinise and monitor new borrowers.
- Banks could lend to the NBFCs, which could then take on the tasks associated with expanding the universe of borrowers to match the increased access to liquid funds.
- The second was that it helped the banks to move risks out of their own books.
- Short term lending to NBFCs, and long-term lending by NBFCs: Banks accepts short term deposits, so there is limit in their ability to lend that short term deposits as a long term debt.
- On the other hand, these were the sectors to which additional credit could be easily pushed.
- Lending to NBFCs that in turn lent to these sectors, appeared to be a solution to the problem.
- Bank lending to the NBFCs was short term, and the latter used these short-term funds to provide long-maturity loans
- NBFCs expected that they would be able to roll over much of these loans so that they were not capital short.
- Role of rating agencies: What they needed for the purpose were ratings that ranked their instruments as safe.
- The ratings companies were more than willing to provide such ranks.
- The two risks involved in this model: The NBFC-credit build-up was an edifice that was burdened with two kinds of risks.
- First risk: A possible default on the part of borrowers.
- The probability of which only increases as the universe of borrowers is expanded rapidly to exhaust the liquidity at hand.
- The second risk: The second was the possibility that developments in the banking sector and other segments of the financial sector would reduce the appetite of these investors for the debentures, bonds and commercial paper issued by the NBFCs
- Since the NBFCs banked on being able to roll-over short-term debt to sustain long-term lending.
- A slowdown in or halt to the flow of funds would lead to a liquidity crunch that can damage the balance sheet of these institutions.
- Which of the two risks is involved in the present crisis? The crisis that affected the NBFCs was a result of both kinds of setbacks.
- First setback: Loans to areas like infrastructure, commercial real estate and housing went bad.
- Second setback: With the non-performing assets problem in the commercial banking sector curtailing their access to bank lending.
- Why the problem turned systemic? Given the importance of ratings and “image” in ensuring access to capital, some firms with the requisite image were able to mobilise large sums of capital and expand their business.
- When entities like that go bust, the response of lenders and investors to the event tends to be drastic, with systemic effects on the sector as a whole.
Conclusion
The episode was a shadow banking crisis that has had far-reaching consequences for the economy as a whole. Therefore, its high time that measures are taken to avoid the occurrence of such a crisis in the future.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-Federal system.
Context
The government-imposed deadline of October 31 for concluding talks with Naga groups has passed. And nothing concrete has come out of the Framework Agreement signed in 2015.
Events so far
- Framework Agreement with Naga rebel leader Thuingaleng Muivah was signed in 2015.
- The agreement expresses an intent to work towards the final agreement.
- The progress on the said agreement has stalled since then.
- Problem with the Framework Agreement: It was signed only with Muivah’s leading faction, National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), or NSCN (I-M).
- Exclusion of major players: The agreement excluded half a dozen more groups, besides Naga citizenry in Nagaland and contiguous Naga homelands in the neighbouring states of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam.
- This weakened the process.
Efforts made by the government
- Appointment of an interlocutor: The government-appointed R.N. Ravi as the government’s interlocutor. That move signalled the seriousness from the government’s side.
- Reach out toward the other players: The government reached out to Nagas across the board.
- The government reached out to other rebel factions, much to the irritation of NSCN (I-M), and began peace talks with them in end-2017.
- A breakaway faction of I-M’s arch enemies, NSCN’s Khaplang, joined the process in 2019.
- Government-led outreach attempted to bring on board non-Naga people in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam.
What is offered in the process and related issues
- Disarmament, rehabilitation, and assimilation: A talks with I-M spelt out disarmament, rehabilitation, and assimilation of cadres and leaders through induction in paramilitary forces and political structures
- Expanded legislature: An expanded legislature in Nagaland, for inducting the rebels and more legislative representation and relative autonomy in Naga homelands outside Nagaland.
- Disagreement over flang and the separate state-constitution: Other Naga rebel groups agreed to what was offered by the government.
- I-M remained intransigent over the dual use of a Naga flag alongside the Indian flag, and its constitution—
- This I-M-scripted constitution is regressive, offers far less than what Nagas enjoy under Indian constitutional provisions, and effectively proposes Muivah as the overarching figure of Naga politics, development and destiny.
- Unacceptance by the other groups: This is evidently unacceptable to numerous Nagas—let alone non-Nagas—for whom Muivah, a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur’s Ukhrul region, remains a divisive figure.
Conclusion
There is a need to reconcile the difference between the different groups and reach a proposed agreement as soon as possible for the welfare of the communities and the region as a whole.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Indian Constitution's approach to secularism.
Context
While extending the scope and extent of the freedom of religion, the SC would face the difficult question of balancing it with the other provisions and rights enshrined in the Constitution.
What the 9-Judge bench will deliberate on?
- The establishment of the Bench emanated out of an order of reference made on review petitions filed against the Sabarimala judgment.
- The scope and extent of religious liberty: It will answer a series of wide-ranging questions and expound the scope and extent of the Constitution’s religious liberty clauses.
- It will also deliberate on cases including the practice of female genital mutilation and the rights of Parsi women to enter fire temples.
The question of balance
- Within the Constitution of India, there are two impulses that may, at times, come into conflict with one another.
- First impulse-Religious freedom: India is a pluralist and diverse nation, where groups and communities — whether religious or cultural — have always played an important role in society.
- Religious freedom: Following up on this impulse, the Constitution recognises both the freedom of religion as an individual right (Article 25), as well as the right of religious denominations to manage their own affairs in matters of religion (Article 26).
- The second impulse-Protection of an individual: The second impulse, recognises that while the community can be a source of solidarity at the best of times, it can also be a terrain of oppression and exclusion.
- So, both Articles 25 and 26 are subject to public order, morality, and health.
- Article 25 is also subject to other fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and to the state’s power to bring in social reform laws.
Finding the middle ground
- The middle ground involves respecting and balancing the following-
- The autonomy of communities: It involves respecting the autonomy of cultural and religious communities.
- Individual rights: It involves ensuring that individual rights are not entirely sacrificed at the altar of the community.
- Essential practice doctrine: Over the years, the Supreme Court has found the middle ground by carving out a jurisprudence that virtually allows it to sit in theological judgments.
- What is constitutionally protected? It recognising that it is only those practices that are “essential” to religion that enjoys constitutional protection.
- Any other ritual is seen as secular and amenable to the state’s interference.
- This doctrine was used to rule, in 2004, that the performance of the Tandava dance was not an essential tenet of the religious faith of the Ananda Margis.
- The SC said that the “essential religious practices” test is indeed the only way it can reconcile the two impulses.
Anti-exclusion principle
- What are the options with the SC?
- Continue with the “essential practice” doctrine: One option before the nine-judge Bench would simply be to affirm existing jurisprudence, as it stands.
- Anti-exclusion principle: The second option would be to ask whether the effect of the disputed religious practice is to cause harm to individual rights.
- The enquiry, thus, is not whether the practice is truly religious, but whether its effect is to subordinate, exclude, or otherwise send a signal that one set of members is entitled to lesser respect and concern than others.
- In Sabrimala case — both the concurring opinion of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and the dissenting opinion of Justice Indu Malhotra agreed that this ought to be the test.
- Protection of dissenters
- Top-down nature: Many religious communities, norms, and practices are shaped and imposed from above, by community leaders, and then enforced with the force of social sanction.
- Dissenters are then faced with an impossible choice: Either comply with discriminatory practices or make a painful exit from the community.
- Judicial intervention: It is here that the Constitution can help by ensuring that the oppressed and excluded among communities can call upon the Court for aid.
Conclusion
- The nine-judge Bench will face a difficult and delicate task of constitutional interpretation. Much will ride upon its decision: the rights of women in particular and of many other vulnerable groups in general.
- Also will depend on its decision the constitutional vision of ensuring a life of dignity and equality to all, both in the public sphere and in the sphere of community.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Violations of human rights.
Context
The human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir following the dilution of Article 370 and the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) have brought renewed international focus on India’s human rights practice.
Evolution of the modern Human Rights
- Classical approach: Countries made agreements on the premise that a sovereign state had the exclusive right to take any action it thought fit to deal with its nationals.
- No recognition of individuals’ rights: Classic international law governed the conduct between states and did not recognise the rights of individuals.
- The classical notion was challenged in the 19th century.
- Modern Human Rights: Slavery Convention adopted by the League of Nations prohibiting the slave trade heralded the first human rights treaty.
- It was based on the principle of dignity of a human being.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Adopted in 1948 by the United Nations, was the first comprehensive international human rights document.
- The weakening of Unrestricted sovereignty: The evolution of international human rights law is also about the gradual weakening of the concept of unrestricted sovereignty.
India and Human Rights
- Unwarranted international scrutiny: The Indian government’s response to its human rights practice has always been that international scrutiny is unwarranted.
- Why India claims so?: Since the country is the largest democracy in the world with an independent judiciary, free media, and an active civil society no international scrutiny is required.
- Indian has always assured the international community that the judiciary (the SC) would provide adequate remedies to victims of human rights violations.
- These claims sound less credible after the recent developments in J&K and the passage of the CAA.
- Human rights and Discriminatory nature of CAA: Non–discrimination is a fundamental principle of human rights.
- The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that CAA is fundamentally discriminatory in nature”.
Role of Civil Society and Media
- Media’s questionable role: Responding to international concerns the Indian government also refers to the role of free media and civil society in protecting human rights.
- However, the media’s role in J and K and after CAA is questionable.
- Weakened Civil Society: The government has imposed various curbs on it since 2014.
- It has become difficult for it to receive foreign contribution.
- Use of FRCA: Since 2014, the government has canceled the registration of about 14,000 NGOs under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
Conclusion
- It is possible for the Indian government, due to its diplomatic clout, to avoid robust intervention by the UN Human Rights Council and other UN human rights mechanisms.
- But it would be difficult to avoid scrutiny by the international community. So, the government must take steps to allay international concerns and avoid situations where it is seen as a violator of human rights.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dengue vaccine
Mains level: Paper 2-Dealing with Dengue, stategies, suggestion, and holistic approach.
Context
The advent of a new tetravalent vaccine against the dengue virus has thrown new light into the evidence-based management of dengue.
Why the holistic approach is needed
- Apart from promoting the use of the vaccine, gaining control over dengue will also require a holistic approach that has to include within its ambit vector control and proper case management.
- Tetravalent vaccine: The vaccine is tetravalent i.e. it provides protection against all the four types of dengue viruses.
- The vaccine confers about 80% protection to children vaccinated between 4 and 16 years of age without any major side effects.
- Climatic factors: It is essentially a tropical disease that occurs in the countries around the Equator; hot weather and intermittent rainfall favour the sustenance of Aedes aegypti.
- Aedes eggs can remain dormant for more than a year and will hatch once they come in contact with water.
- Risk factors: Urbanisation, poor town planning, and improper sanitation are the major risk factors for the multiplication of such mosquitoes.
- Aedes eggs can remain dormant for more than a year and will hatch once they come in contact with water.
- Aedes mosquitoes cannot fly beyond a hundred meters. Hence, keeping the ambiance clean can help prevent their breeding.
- Further, these mosquitoes bite during the daytime, so keeping the windows shut in the day hours is also useful.
What needs to be done?
- Source reduction activities: Activities like preventing water stagnation and using chemical larvicides and adulticides.
- These chemicals need to be applied in periodic cycles to kill the larvae that remain even after the first spray.
- Dealing with the manpower shortage: The number of skilled workers available for such measures is low; many posts in government departments remain vacant despite there being a dire public health need.
- Due to this deficiency of manpower, active surveillance is not being done in India, says the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program.
- Ending the Under-reporting: Dengue cases are often under-reported due to political reasons and also to avoid spreading panic among the common people. Under-reporting needs to be dealt with.
- Increasing coordination: There is a lack of coordination between the local bodies and health departments in the delivery of public health measures.
- A comprehensive mechanism is required to address these issues.
- Need for epidemiological measures: Any communicable disease needs the epidemiological approach. Singapore uses one successful model of mapping and analysing data on dengue, using Geographical Information System (GIS).
- The use of GIS involves mapping the streets with dengue cases for vector densities.
- Emphasis on the WHO guidelines: Fluid management in the body is the cornerstone in the management of severe diseases like dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome.
- According to the guidelines, coagulation abnormalities are not due to a reduction in the number of platelets alone.
- This is why the WHO recommends fresh whole blood or packed cell transfusion in the event of bleeding.
- Caution in using alternative medicine drugs: Modern medicine is not against any complementary medicine; when such a medicine is approved after rigorous testing.
- However, in the absence of evidence, the efficacy of such medicines remains in the realm of belief instead of science.
- So, medicines like Nilavembu kudineer and papaya leaf extract are only belief based.
Conclusion
The communicable nature of Dengue and its asymptomatic nature requires the holistic approach to successfully tackle the disease.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Restrictions on the fundamental rights, Constitutional protection to the use of internet.
Context
The SC verdict on the restrictions has some important takeaways.
What the SC verdict means
- Infinite ban on internet impermissible: It states categorically that an indefinite ban on the internet is impermissible, but fails to direct the restoration of services.
- Section 144 and legitimate expression of opinion: The SC said that Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure “cannot be used as a tool to prevent the legitimate expression of opinion or grievance or exercise of any democratic rights”.
- No ruling on the Govt. actions: The disappointing aspect of the verdict is the court’s failure to give a ruling on the validity of the government’s actions.
- The ruling fails to hold the government to account for the manner in which it exercised its powers.
- It states categorically that an indefinite ban on the internet is impermissible, but fails to direct the restoration of services.
- The SC does not go beyond directing the authorities to review all their orders and restrictions forthwith.
The key takeaways from the verdict
- Internet use constitutionally protected: The use of the Internet as a medium for free speech as well as for trade and commerce is constitutionally protected.
- Test of proportionality: It also lays down that any reasonable restriction on fundamental rights, be it an Internet ban or a Section 144 order, will have to survive the test of proportionality.
- The proportionality test means that is, the restriction should be proportionate to the necessity for such a measure.
- At the same time, it cautions against the “excessive utility” of the proportionality doctrine in matters of national security.
- No secret orders: The government is bound to publish all orders it passes regarding such restrictions so that they can be challenged in a court of law.
- While the government’s stand that it could not produce all the orders on the restrictions imposed the SC did not strike them down on that ground.
Conclusion
The SC judgment, while laying down some important principles in a fundamental rights case, appears to have the character of an advisory opinion.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Restriction on fundamental rights, use of internet protected by the constitution
Context
The SC verdict on the restrictions has some important takeaways.
What the SC verdict means
- Infinite ban on internet impermissible: It states categorically that an indefinite ban on the internet is impermissible, but fails to direct the restoration of services.
- Section 144 and legitimate expression of opinion: The SC said that Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure “cannot be used as a tool to prevent the legitimate expression of opinion or grievance or exercise of any democratic rights”.
- No ruling on the Govt. actions: The SC stops short of ruling on the validity of the government’s actions.
- The ruling fails to hold the government to account for the manner in which it exercised its powers.
- It states categorically that an indefinite ban on the internet is impermissible, but fails to direct the restoration of services.
- The SC does not go beyond directing the authorities to review all their orders and restrictions forthwith.
The key takeaways from the verdict
- Internet use constitutionally protected: The use of the Internet as a medium for free speech as well as for trade and commerce is constitutionally protected.
- Test of proportionality: It also lays down that any reasonable restriction on fundamental rights, be it an Internet ban or a Section 144 order, will have to survive the test of proportionality.
- The proportionality test means that is, the restriction should be proportionate to the necessity for such a measure.
- At the same time, it cautions against the “excessive utility” of the proportionality doctrine in matters of national security.
- No secret orders: The government is bound to publish all orders it passes regarding such restrictions so that they can be challenged in a court of law.
- While the government’s stand that it could not produce all the orders on the restrictions imposed the SC did not strike them down on that ground.
Conclusion
The SC judgment, while laying down some important principles in a fundamental rights case, appears to have the character of an advisory opinion.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Drones, applications and security threats.
Context
Increasing the use of drones in warfare and other areas has brought into focus the potential the use of drones hold and the other issues related to its misuse.
Recent events featuring drones
- A drone was used by the U.S. to fire the missile at Qassem Soleimani to assassinate him.
- A few days before that, less-lethal drones monitored crowds of student protesters rocking India.
A potential area of use of drones
- Military and Policing: Drones are largely used for military or policing purposes, but they also have other uses.
- Recreation and Sports: They are used for recreation and sports. The Chinese company DJI dominates this space.
- Logistics: Logistics is another use, with Amazon developing last-mile drone delivery.
- At scale, this delivery model can save money, energy and time.
- Domino’s extended this logic to deliver its first pizza by drone in New Zealand and is experimenting with scaling this model up in many markets.
- Botswana has had some successful trials where drones have delivered blood and life-saving drugs to villages out in the wilderness.
- Agriculture: A startup called Terraview uses drones with advanced image processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality to increase the productivity of vineyards.
- A drone can be used to measure the amount of grain that’s piled up after harvest.
- Mining Output: Tata Steel has used drones quite effectively to measure mining output.
- Access the inaccessible places: Drones can go where people cannot.
- So, inspection and repair at remote wind farms on an island, or pipelines in the remote tundra, or equipment in a rainforest can be done more cheaply and precisely.
- Drone surveillance is now widely used by the insurance industry in the aftermath of floods or pest inspections.
- They can provide organizations a 360-degree view of the status of any construction project and its assets.
- Explosive detection and defusing: In many places, it is just safer to send a drone, such as while using explosives in deep mines or defusing suspected bombs.
- Wildlife protection and survey: drones are used to survey wildlife and detect poaching in the jungles of Africa.
Drones as commodity
- Drones will soon become a hardware commodity, much like personal computers.
- It will be the software loaded on it that will be the real force-multiplier.
- Industry 4.0 revolution: Business like “drones-as-a-service” will emerge, dramatically reducing the time taken for tasks and serving as a vital tool in the Industry 4.0 revolution.
A potent tool for Swarm-attack by military
- Perhaps the most fascinating developments will occur where drones originated, in
- Drones will mutate into swarms, where multiple, intelligent, small drones act as one vast network, much like a swarm of birds or locusts.
- Advanced militaries have drone swarms under trial that could revolutionize future conflicts.
- These swarms could overwhelm enemy sensors with sheer numbers and precisely target enemy soldiers and assets using data fed into them.
- They will be difficult to shoot down as there will be hundreds of small flying objects rather than one big ballistic missile.
- The swarm will use real-time ground data to organize itself and operate in concert to achieve its goal.
Issues with drones
- It will be us humans who will decide whether we use drones for beneficial or malevolent ends.
- National Security Issues: Drones have demonstrated the potentials for their threat to the security of a country. Drones are operated remotely and can strike where it want it to strike. Raising serious security issues.
- Terrorism: Drones have been used by various terrorist organisations like ISIS in Syria and Iraq to hit their targets.
- Aviation safety: Drones flying too close to commercial aircraft has called for regulations.
- Privacy: Drones have been used by the paparazzi to take the images of individuals breaching their privacy.
Conclusion
Drones can indeed be a fantastic tool for good projects, from helping save the planet to identifying and nabbing criminals, and preventing the loss of human life. However, for that, we will have to change the DNA that they were born with, as lethal weapons of war. Otherwise, they will remain anonymous killers, wreaking death and destruction as they hover innocuously above.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Changes in policy and their effects.
Context
The government eased the regulations for coal mining in India.
What does the opening mean?
- Removal of restrictions: Until now there were restrictions on who could bid for coal mines.
- Only those in power, iron and steel and coal washery business could bid for mines.
- The bidders needed the prior experience of mining in India.
- Who can buy now?: The move will open up the coal mining sector completely, enabling anyone with finances and expertise to bid for blocks and sell the coal freely to any buyer of their choice.
Benefits of opening
- More value extraction: The restrictions limited the potential bidders to a select circle of players and thus limited the value that the government could extract from the bidding.
- Now the Government can extract more value from the auction of the blocks.
- Development of coal market: Second, end-use restrictions inhibited the development of a domestic market for coal.
- Job creation: Large investment will create jobs in the sector.
- Increase in Demand: It will also set off demand in critical sectors such as mining equipment and heavy commercial vehicles.
- Technology infusion: The country may also benefit from an infusion of sophisticated mining technology, especially for underground mines, if multinationals decide to invest.
- Ease on Current account: In value terms, coal imports touched $26.18 billion in 2018-19, up from $15.76 billion in 2016-17.
- This surge in coal imports, along with oil and electronics imports, has exerted pressure on the country’s current account in recent years.
Why the move matters
- 70 % of energy production in India is coal-based.
- Until now Coal India was the only commercial miner in the country for more than four decades accounting for 82 per cent of the coal production in the country.
- The productivity of coal is still an issue in the country. Coal is a very crucial raw material that is used in the power sector and also in cement and metal sectors.
Way forward
The relaxation in regulations, along with previous initiatives such as allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment through the automatic route in commercial coal production, can aid in boosting coal production in the country and help reduce imports.
Coal India Limited (CIL) has to be nurtured even as private players are welcomed.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3-Slowdown in the economy, supply side-demand side, way forward for recovery.
Context
In order to revive the economy, the Government must choose between tax reductions and increasing rural spending.
The Current Status of the Indian Economy
- 5 % in 2019-20: The first advance estimate pegs India’s economic growth at 5 per cent in 2019-20.
- Cause of the slowdown: The slowdown can be attributed largely to a structural demand problem in the economy along with some cyclical
- Stagnant income and stagnant incomes: Despite largely stagnant incomes, private consumption has been financed over the past few years through lower savings, easy credit, and certain one-offs such as the Seventh Pay Commission led pay-outs.
- Private consumption is the largest driver of growth.
- Depleting savings: The household savings rate has dipped to 17.2 per cent of GDP in FY18, from 22.5 per cent in FY13.
- Depleting credit in the system: Overall credit in the system has dried up.
Rural economy
- Low wages and stagnant incomes: Rural wage growth has averaged around 4.5 per cent over the past five years, but adjusting for inflation it has been only 0.6 per cent.
- Weak real estate sector: The rural population, which was dependent on urban real estate/construction has faced headwinds in the recent past.
- The sector is experiencing lower private sector investments recently.
Limited scope for a sharp recovery
- The following factors render the scope for sharp recovery limited.
- Consumption issue is structural: The slowdown in private consumption is a structural issue linked to low household income growth.
- Low job creation: Low consumption is in turn, linked to the basic problems of low job creation.
- Low Income: Low consumption is also linked with stagnant farm incomes.
- None of the above factors is likely to change suddenly, limiting the scope of recovery.
- Low Investments: Investment is unlikely to rebound sharply given the challenges on both income and balance sheet of the government, private sector, and households.
- Stressed Government consumption: Which has been supporting growth over the past few years, remains under stress.
- The combined Centre and states’ fiscal deficit is close to 6.5 per cent of GDP.
- The public sector is already weighing on the limited domestic financial resources, ruling out space for an aggressive fiscal stimulus.
- NBFC’s role: Recovery will also depend on the health of the financial sector, especially that of NBFCs.
Use of the fiscal space
- Supply-side: The government has shown a clear preference to rely on supply-side measures (like corporate tax cut) to support growth.
- Need to address demand-side: Expectations will be high that the upcoming Union budget addresses the demand side concerns as well.
- Spending on rural infrastructure and employment (MGNREGA, PM-KISAN, PMGSY) can decrease pain in rural areas.
- Given the narrow income tax base, any sacrifice of the fiscal room would be beneficial only for a limited number of people.
Way forward
- Widening of the tax base- Given the narrow income tax base, any sacrifice of the fiscal room would be beneficial only for a limited number of people.
- Broad-basing of the income and consumption profile: Economic reforms in the past have worked to enhance the capacity of the top few hundred million consumers.
- The next set of reforms should enhance the capacity of those in the middle and the bottom of the income pyramid.
- Role of the private sector: Given the huge infrastructure gap in the country, it is essential that the private sector’s role in infrastructure creation is much more inclusive.
Conclusion
Reforms that increase the productivity of the factors of production, provide an enabling environment for competitive production of goods and services and ensure steady and substantial growth in purchasing power for a larger section of the population should be the focus.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Context
State of Climate of India report by IMD should occasion interventions to make people resilient to extreme weather events.
What does the report confirm?
- Frequent extreme weather events: The report states that extreme weather events have become par for the course in the country.
- The report notes that excessive heat, cold and rainfall killed 1,562 people during the year.
- Intense dry spells, even droughts, were interspersed with floods in several parts of the country
- Above normal temperature: The mean temperature last year was 0.36 above normal.
- The excess rainfall: The country also recorded excess rainfall during both the southwest and northeast monsoons.
Long-term meteorological trends:
- The IMD report should be seen in conjunction with long-term meteorological trends.
- The warmest decade: The World Meteorological Organisation reckons that the decade starting 2011 remains on track to be the warmest on record.
- Increase in the relative humidity: At the same time, data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Forecast shows that the relative humidity in the mid-troposphere in the Subcontinent has increased by about 2 percent in the past four decades.
- Such warming has increased the capacity of oceans to form intense cyclonic disturbances.
Implications for disaster-preparedness:
- Cyclones: Last year, as the IMD report notes, the Indian Ocean witnessed eight cyclones.
- Cyclones don’t kill but buildings can turn hazardous during such extreme weather events.
- The vulnerability of the poor: In Odisha winds blowing at more than 140 kilometers per hour ripped off roofs and window frames in modern houses and also exposed the vulnerability of the mud and bamboo houses of the poor.
- Guidelines: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs does have guidelines for climate-friendly construction.
- But planners in coastal cities and towns rarely pay heed to its provisions.
- Cooperation between the states: The changing dynamics of weather also demands cooperation between states that share a river basin.
- Maharashtra and Karnataka bickered over opening the gates of the Almatti dam on the Krishna.
Implications for the farmers:
- For farmers, vagaries in nature mean disruptions in the entire cropping cycle.
- This year, Kerala, southern Karnataka, and Gujarat were heavily deficient till July.
- But within a few days in the last week of July, these states recorded surplus rainfall.
- Rainwater storage and use: Increasing their resilience calls for efficient rainwater storage and use.
Conclusion:
It’s clear that dealing with exceptional weather will require interventions at the national, state and local levels. The Statement on Climate of India 2019 drives home the urgency of such interventions.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-Relations with China and the U.S.
Context
After the gap of 200 years, Asian economies are once again larger than the rest of the world combined.
The Asian Century
- Providing an alternative order: With the rise of India and China, Asia is providing a multilateral alternative to the world base on values.
- Asian Century corresponds to the re-emergence of the two countries, leveraging the size and technological competence
- Civilizational values: Both countries have civilisational values that are different from the west.
- Peaceful existence: In the case of India and China balance of power is a western construct and both lived in peace across the ages.
- The rise of China on the global landscape: In 2013, after attaining 15% of global wealth, announced the multilateral Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In 2014, launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, challenging the global governance paradigm.
- India in 2015, established the International Solar Alliance, laying out a distinct global sustainable development framework.
- Current multilateralism and its problems: The U.S. has recognised the ‘Asian Century’ bypassing multilateralism and recognised Indo-Pacific construct.
- The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the inclusion of intellectual property rights into the trade regime point to the colonial origin of the present order.
New Framework- Country-specific to global value chain
- Changing competition: Competition is moving from country-specific to fragmented competition based on global value chains.
- Imposing the U.S. determined national security standards has led to only a handful of countries agreeing to ban Huawei for 5G technology.
- The U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran that have affected India’s interests.
- A different approach of China: It is based on “common interests” as different from the agreed goals of a negotiated treaty. BRI is an example of this.
- It optimise not maximise the financial returns with countries remaining out of it.
- The BRI offers the benefit of integration and connectivity with European markets to the member countries.
Potential of BRI
- It acts as a strategic framework: It provides a strategic framework for new global institution building.
- Its scope is as wide as multilateral treaties.
- Internationalizing the Renminbi: With state-owned enterprises in the infrastructure sector in the sector in BRI and backing from national banks is internationalising the Renminbi.
- Developing blockchain bases infrastructure: As a leader in digital transactions, China is developing blockchain-based infrastructure in BRI countries. Thus reducing the dependence on the dollar.
The shared interest of India and China
- RCEP: China and the rest of the countries are eager that India joins the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is poised to become the largest trading block.
- Security and border dispute: With the U.S. pivot to Asia, China is eager to resolve the dispute with India to avoid constraints.
- Huawei: India has rejected American opposition to Huawei taking part in 5G trials, India allowed all applicants to participate.
The emergence of new values
- The emergence of the new order should not be seen through a western prism.
- The triumvirate: India, the U.S., and China are intertwined with each other. China was the largest supplier of the goods to the U.S. in 2018 and it has been India’s major trading partner.
- They take part in limited sectoral cooperation on a regional basis.
- Both the U.S. and China have a regular high-level discussions on strategic issues with India.
Area of future differences
- In Asia, differences will center on overlapping priorities.
- Security-The U.S.’s effort to maintain hegemony.
- Economy-China’s emphasis on connectivity, markets, and growth.
- An equitable and sustainable development-India-led framework of digital infrastructure designed as a public good.
Conclusion
With the rise of India and China in Asia and the presence of the U.S. with them is going to make the new order centered around Asia a new reality in the near future.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-The Constitution in favour of strong Centre
Context
The Centre-State conflict over CAA, and the Constitutional obligation on the state to implement the laws made by the Parliament, has once again brought to the fore the fault lines in the Indian federalism.
The opposition of the States to the Central law
- Several state governments have declared that they would not implement the CAA.
- Legislative Assembly of Kerala passed the resolution stating that the law contradicts the basic values.
- The resolution is only symbolic.
- Passage of such a resolution is not constitutionally barred.
- But it may not be in tune with the federal scheme under the Constitution.
What are the obligations on the States?
- Article 256 obligates the State governments to ensure the implementation of the laws made by Parliament.
- The Centre may give such direction as may appear to be necessary to ensure compliance with the laws made by Parliament.
- The refusal to enforce the law even after the Centre issues direction would empower the President to impose the President’s Rule in the State.
- Neither the refusal to implement not the official protests registered by the States carry much legal force.
- The Calcutta High Court directed the state government to remove anti-CAA advertisements from the website.
- The High Court barred the state from campaigning against a parliamentary law.
The diminishing role of the Opposition
- The parliament has been reduced to a site for procedural formalities.
- There is a poor understanding of the role of the parliamentary Opposition in Indian politics.
- Once the elections are over the Opposition is expected not to meddle in the governance.
- The absence of Leader of Opposition in the Parliament for the last 6 years manifests this attitude.
- Further, in the absence of the Opposition showing any resilience, national politics seems to be operating without a credible political check.
The unitary tilt of the Constitution
- Single-party dominance at the Centre has always revealed the tendency of our Constitution to concentrate the power.
- The concentration of power is embedded in the very structure of the Constitution.
- A ‘centrist bias’ of the Constitution further augments the power of single-party dominance.
- Against the backdrop of the fissiparous tendencies in the backdrop of partition, it was justified for the founders to be hesitant in favour of stronger federalism.
The rise of Electoral federalism
- Change in voting patterns.
- Over the last couple of years, there is huge vote swings between national and State elections in the same constituencies and separated by only a few months.
- In other words, federalism is not a mere legal division of power, the democracy and voters too are becoming federal.
- This embrace of electoral federalism may be one of the most significant achievements of Indian democracy.
- Hence, parties that lose in national elections can still win State elections and form governments.
- The State governments are thus filling the opposition deficit at the Centre.
- This shift of opposition from Delhi to State capitals is likely to become the politics over federalism.
Conclusion
- The conflict that CAA triggered might become a template for future contestations over the federal question, while the politics seem to be ripe for the advancement of federalism.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: The post of CDS and its responsibilities.
Mains level: Paper 3-Security forces and their mandates.
Context
Recently Chief of Defence Staff post was created by the Government. The utility of this post and the problem it could create are debated.
History leading to the post
- First World War brought to the fore the command and control dilemmas of concurrent conflicts.
- During the colonial years of Great Britain, an issue that received consideration was the British higher command and control structures.
- With the declaration of the Second World War, the responsibility of higher command fell on War Cabinet serviced by the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
- Winston Churchill as prime minister given the supreme power but remained responsible to the parliament.
- After the U.S. entered the war, a unified command required a single commander.
- After the war ended and the Cold War started, Eisenhower became the supreme commander of NATO.
- While political powers were vested in the NATO council.
- Despite the experience of the World Wars the U.S. has not created CDS.
- In the U.S., the military chain of command runs directly from theatre commanders to civilian secretaries to the President.
- Britain, however, created the post of the Chief of Defence Staff.
The outline for India
- The three-tier defense management structure was adopted by Jawaharlal Nehru.
- Cabinet Committee on security has served India for well over the years.
Role of CDS
- Department of Military Affairs, headed by CDS will deal with the Army, Navy and Air force and The Territorial Army.
- Works related to procurement related exclusively to the services except for capital acquisition.
- He will also act as a Principal Military Advisor to the Defence Minister.
- CDS will not exercise any military command, including the three Service Chiefs, so as to be able to provide impartial advice to the political leadership.
A subordination
- There would be an implied subordination of the three service chiefs to the CDS notwithstanding any declaration to the contrary.
- CDS is tasked with facilitating the restructuring of military commands.
- Bringing about jointness in operations including through the establishment of joint/ theatre command.
- This could encroach upon the domain of the service chiefs.
- The CDS would outrank the three service chiefs even though all are four-star.
- CDS could override the Service Chiefs on critical tactical and perhaps even strategic issues.
Conclusion
- The Department of Military Affairs would exercise control over the three services and also most problematic is the erosion of the civilian supremacy which could result with the creation of the post.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- International relations.
Context
The raging fire in Australia gives provides an opportunity for India and Australia to deepen their dialogue including on energy.
Scope for the two countries
- At this moment India and Australia have a rare opportunity to translate their converging interests into a partnership.
- At Australia India Leadership Dialogue last month in Melbourne, the breadth and depth of the relationship was evident.
- As a consequence of the bushfires, the debate on global warming, climate change and fossil fuels is going to intensify in the weeks ahead.
- Environmental activism has gained ground throughout Australia.
- Indian Ocean Dipole may have triggered the drought that is related to the fires.
- The campaign against fossil fuels and the export of coal is sure to intensify.
- India and Australia are two economies with a great stakeholding in fossil fuels.
- It is critical for India and Australia to ensure that their dialogue on energy acquires momentum.
- Both countries must simultaneously strengthen the International Solar Alliance and the search for other alternative green fuels.
Common threat of China
- Leadership Dialogue also recognised that we are living through a period of immense turbulence, disruption, and even subversion.
- Presence of assertive China is the single biggest challenge to our two countries.
- In India, there is a consensus that the Australia-India relationship is an idea whose time has well and truly come.
Area of coordination
- India and Australia can work on the area of water management to trauma research to skill and higher education.
- Both the countries can also work in the area of maritime security, cybersecurity, counterterrorism,
- In a survey, Indians ranked Australia in the top four nations towards which they feel most warmly.
- Both have a strategic interest in ensuring a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region.
- Indians are today the largest source of skilled migrants in Australia.
- there is need for an early conclusion of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement.
Conclusion
There is a large scope for both countries to coordinate on wide issues like energy, research, security and work together for the benefit of both countries.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Health.
Context
The deaths of nearly 200 children in Kota, from largely preventable diseases, lays bare the condition of the healthcare system in India.
Where does India stand?
- According to UNICEF’s ‘State of World’s Children 2019’ report, India reported the maximum number of deaths of children under five in the world in 2018.
- 8,82,000 children under five died that year.
- That means around 2,416 deaths per day.
- The death of children due to largely-preventable illnesses is a matter of serious concern and calls for urgent introspection.
Factors that govern child health
- Most of the children who died in Gorakhpur, Muzaffarpur and Kota belong to the lowest strata of the society.
- It won’t be wrong to conclude that they were victims of structural violence.
- This structural violence is unleashed through a multitude of social, political and economic factors apathy of healthcare professionals, poor health services/infrastructure
- And low rates of female literacy, economic inequality, the rigid caste system, social apartheid, lack of political will and patriarchy play role.
- As a society, we have stopped looking at the deaths of our citizens through the prism of compassion and concern.
- Structural violence influences the nature and distribution of extreme suffering.
What is being done in the wrong way?
- The government is considering the takeover of 750 district hospitals by private medical colleges through a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
- This, despite ample evidence about the failure of the model in the country’s healthcare system.
- Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow demonstrated that profit and private involvement in healthcare lead to an erosion of trust.
- An Individual’s demand for medical services is irregular and unpredictable, the involvement of a private market model for such services can be disastrous.
- The U.S.’s experiences in the PPP model in healthcare have shone a light on the deficits in transparency and highlighted the lack of care of vulnerable groups.
Conclusion
- What urgently a sincere engagement by the state in matters concerning peoples’ health.
- We need to question the government’s priorities in a country where nearly a million children die every year
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 1-Climate change,Forest fires.
Context
In Australia, forest fires, among the worst in the country’s history, have been raging since September and show no signs of abating.
Unabated fire in Australia
- The fire, worst in Australia’s history, has been raging since September and shows no signs of abating.
- At least 24 people lost their lives, 500 million animal have perished, and more than 12bn acres of land has turned to cinders.
- New South Wales, the country’s worst-affected state, declared an emergency last week in its southeastern region.
Climate change and the fire
- Australians have vented their anger at Prime Minister for playing down the blaze’s association with climate change.
- Bushfires are actually a part of Australia’s ecosystem. Many plants depend on them to cycle nutrients and clear vegetation.
- Eucalyptus trees in Australia depend on fire to release their seeds.
- The prolonged blaze this year has coincided with Australia’s harshest summer.
- Parts of the country recorded their highest recorded temperature in December.
- Much of Australia is facing a drought that is a result of three consecutive summers with very little precipitation.
- This, according to climate scientists, is unprecedented.
- Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s 2018 State of the Climate report had given a hint of the change.
- It said “Australia’s climate has warmed by just over 1 degree Celsius since 1910, leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events.’’
- This has led to more rainfall in northern Australia but created drought-like conditions in the more densely populated southeast.
Damage caused to the flora and fauna of Australia
- Australia is home to nearly 250 animal species.
- Some of them like the koalas and kangaroos are not found elsewhere.
- The region also has the highest rate of native animals going extinct over the past 200 years.
- Experts, for example, reckon that more than a quarter of the koala habitat has been consumed by the blaze.
- The fires have also caused a drop in the bird, rodent and insect populations.
Conclusion
- These creatures perished are the building blocks of the ecosystem and the fall in their population is bound to have long-term impacts. In Australia’s bushfires lies a warning about the complex ways in which climate variables interact.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper2 - International relations
Context
Targeted killing of powerful Iranian Major-General could have done more bad than good for the U.S.
Series of events after the assassination
- The Iraqi parliament voted to expel the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and deny them access to its airspace, land or water.
- Pro-Iranian groups could attack across the region where thousands of U.S. troops and official personnel are stationed.
- Soleimani’s assassination has awakened the deep strain of Iranian patriotism.
- And Iran is not alone.
- In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called Soleimani the “glue that held the Resistance Axis together”.
- The U.S threat of striking “52 Iranian sites” did not win the U.S. any support on the international stage.
- Even the Europeans, otherwise steadfast with the U.S. in these sorts of adventures, hesitated.
- Arab League’s Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit expressed concern over the situation and asked for calm.
- This is the same man who had, only a few weeks ago, accused Iran of sowing chaos in the region.
- It is likely that China and Russia will table a resolution at the UN that calls for calm as well as criticises the U.S.
- This will certainly be vetoed by the U.S.
Desperate and irrational policy
- Till now the U.S. has not been able to extricate itself from its illegal war against Iraq.
- That war provided a massive advantage to Iran not only in Iraq but also across the region.
- This is what terrified two of the U.S.’s allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, both of whom pressured Washington to increase its threats against Iran.
- S. create the conditions for the rise of the worst kind of violence in Iraq, and later Syria
- It also weakened the strategic position of its allies.
- No attempt by the U.S. to regain its authority has worked.
- The U.S. policy against Iran and Iraq appear desperate and irrational.
Conclusion
- The U.S recklessness has isolated it further and deepened anxieties amongst its increasingly isolated regional allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now