💥UPSC 2026, 2027, 2028 UAP Mentorship (March Batch) + Access XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Type: op-ed snap

  • Animal Husbandry, Dairy & Fisheries Sector – Pashudhan Sanjivani, E- Pashudhan Haat, etc

    Improving livestock breeding

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Economics Of Animal-Rearing

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: NLM

    Mains level: Paper 3- Rashtriya Gokul Mission and National Livestock Mission (NLM)

    Context

    The revised version of the Rashtriya Gokul Mission and National Livestock Mission (NLM) proposes to bring focus on entrepreneurship development and breed improvement in cattle, buffalo, poultry, sheep, goat, and piggery.

    Livestock breeding and challenges

    • Unorganised in nature: Livestock breeding in India has been largely unorganised.
    • Lack of linkages: Because of this unorganised nature there have been gaps in forward and backward integration across the value chain.
    • Impact on quality: The above scenario impacts the quality of livestock that is produced and in turn negatively impacts the return on investment for livestock farmers.
    • Roughly 80% bovines in the country are low on productivity and are reared by small and marginal farmers.

    Entrepreneurship development through NLM and Rashtriya Gokul Mission

    • The revised version of the Rashtriya Gokul Mission and National Livestock Mission (NLM) proposes to bring focus on entrepreneurship development.
    • Breed improvement infrastructure: It seeks to provide incentives to individual entrepreneurs, farmer producer organisations, farmer cooperatives, joint liability groups, self-help groups, Section 8 companies for entrepreneurship development and State governments for breed improvement infrastructure.
    • The breed multiplication farm component of the Rashtriya Gokul Mission is going to provide for capital subsidy up to ₹200 lakh for setting up breeding farm with at least 200 milch cows/ buffalo using latest breeding technology. 
    •  Moreover, the strategy of incentivising breed multiplication farm will result in the employment of 1 lakh farmers.
    • The grassroots initiatives in this sphere will be further amplified by web applications like e-Gopala that provide real-time information to livestock farmers.
    • Poultry: The poultry entrepreneurship programme of the NLM will provide for capital subsidy up to ₹25 lakh for the setting up of a parent farm with a capacity to rear 1,000 chicks.
    • Under this model, the rural entrepreneur running the hatchery will be supplying chicks to the farmers.
    • This is expected to provide employment to at least 14 lakh people.
    • Sheep and goat entrepreneurship: In the context of sheep and goat entrepreneurship, there is a provision of capital subsidy of 50% up to 50 lakh.
    • An entrepreneur under this model shall set up a breeder farm, develop the whole chain will eventually sell the animals to the farmers or in the open market.
    • This model is projected to generate a net profit of more than ₹33 lakh for the entrepreneur per year.
    • Piggery: For piggery, the NLM will provide 50% capital subsidy of up to ₹30 lakh.
    •  Each entrepreneur will be aided with establishment of breeder farms with 100 sows and 10 boars, expected to produce 2,400 piglets in a year.
    • This model is expected to generate a profit of ₹1.37 crore after 16 months and 1.5 lakh jobs.

    Conclusion

    The revised scheme of NLM coupled with the Rashtriya Gokul Mission and the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund has the potential to dramatically enhance the productivity and traceability standards of our livestock.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Coal and Mining Sector

    The coal crisis and role of CIL in mitigation

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Coal Mines Nationalisation Act (CMNA)

    Mains level: Paper 3- Coal crisis

    Context

    In India, coal-based power plants have witnessed rapid depletion of coal stocks from a comfortable 28 days at the end of March to a precarious level of four days by the end of September. Coal India Ltd (CIL) has been unfairly attacked, even as it gears up to play a crucial role in fighting the power crisis.

    Reasons for crisis

    • The reasons for the crisis are structural as well as operational.
    • The Coal Mines Nationalisation Act (CMNA) in 1993 enabled the government to take away 200 coal blocks of 28 billion tons from CIL and allocate them to end-users for the captive mining of coal.
    • These end-users, mostly in the private sector, failed to produce any significant quantity of coal.
    • The cancellation of 214 blocks by the Supreme Court added to the problem.
    • Commensurate to the captive mines allocated to the end-user industries, the coal production today should have been at least 500 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
    • In reality, this has never exceeded 60 mtpa.
    • On the operational side, power plants are required by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to maintain a minimum stock of 15 to 30 days of normative coal consumption.
    • The compliance with this directive by power plants has been severely lacking.
    • This enhances the vulnerability of power plants.
    • The persistent non-payment of coal sale dues by power plants to coal companies has created a serious strain on their working capital position.
    • A spurt in imported coal prices, mainly due to a major increase in coal imports by China, acted as a brake on imports of coal.
    • This escalated the demand for domestic coal.
    • The spurt in demand for coal is being linked to the post-Covid economic recovery.

    CIL’s role in mitigating the shortage crisis

    • Growth in production in short duration: Despite many constraining factors, it is to the credit of CIL that it has achieved a growth of 14 million tonnes (mt) or 5.8 per cent in coal production during the first half of 2021-22.
    • Yet, the offtake was higher than the preceding year by 52 mt or 20.6 per cent.
    • This was possible by drawing down on the opening inventory of coal from 100 mt to 42 mt during April to September.
    • With the monsoons behind us and the onset of a good productive season, CIL has already stepped up coal offtake to more than 1.5 mt per day.
    • With efforts on the part of the railways in moving the coal, the crisis should dissipate in the near future, at least for power plants that pay timely for coal supplies.
    • Besides meeting the growing coal demand of power plants, CIL has been able to significantly replace the import of highly expensive thermal coal.
    • Cheaper coal: Even after bearing the highest tax and transport cost globally, the landed cost of CIL coal continues to be much cheaper than imported coal at almost all destinations.
    • Saving of foreign exchange: The resultant benefits are savings of foreign exchange, and generation of power at affordable tariffs.
    • The coal price charged by CIL, expressed in energy units, is at a deep discount of 60-70 per cent of imported coal.

    Conclusion

    In brief, CIL has been unfairly blamed for the coal crisis. It has played a stellar role, standing like a solid rock between light and darkness. It is striving to build comfortable stocks at the power plants, not in default of payment.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.

    What the low rank on the Global Hunger Index means for India

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies,Health & Education

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: GHI and its components

    Mains level: Paper 2- Low ranking of India on GHI

    Context

    This year’s Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranks India 101 out of 116 countries for which reliable and comparable data exist.

    Government’s stand

    • Is India’s performance on hunger as dismal as denoted by the index or is it partly a statistical artefact?
    • This question assumes immediacy, especially since the government has questioned the methodology and claimed that the ranking does not represent the ground reality.
    • This calls for careful scrutiny of the methodology, especially of the GHI’s components.

    Understanding the GHI methodology

    • The GHI has four components.
    • The first — insufficient calorie intake — is applicable for all age groups.
    • The data on deficiency in calorie intake, accorded 33% weight, is sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Suite of Food Security Indicators (2021).
    • The remaining three — wasting (low weight for height), stunting (low height for age) and mortality — are confined to children under five years.
    • The data on child wasting and stunting (2016-2020), each accounting for 16.6% of weight, are from the World Health Organization, UNICEF and World Bank, complemented with the latest data from the Demographic and Health Surveys.
    • Under-five mortality data are for 2019 from the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

    Issues with GHI

    • The GHI is largely children-oriented with a higher emphasis on undernutrition than on hunger and its hidden forms, including micronutrient deficiencies.
    • The first component — calorie insufficiency — is problematic for many reasons.
    • The lower calorie intake, which does not necessarily mean deficiency, may also stem from reduced physical activity, better social infrastructure (road, transport and healthcare) and access to energy-saving appliances at home, among others.
    • For a vast and diverse country like India, using a uniform calorie norm to arrive at deficiency prevalence means failing to recognise the huge regional imbalances in factors that may lead to differentiated calorie requirements at the State level.

    Understanding the connection between stunting and wasting and ways to tackling them

    • India’s wasting prevalence (17.3%) is one among the highest in the world.
    •  Its performance in stunting, when compared to wasting, is not that dismal, though.
    • Child stunting in India declined from 54.2% in 1998–2002 to 34.7% in 2016-2020, whereas child wasting remains around 17% throughout the two decades of the 21st century.
    • Stunting is a chronic, long-term measure of undernutrition, while wasting is an acute, short-term measure.
    • Quite possibly, several episodes of wasting without much time to recoup can translate into stunting.
    • Effectively countering episodes of wasting resulting from such sporadic adversities is key to making sustained and quick progress in child nutrition.
    • Way forward: If India can tackle wasting by effectively monitoring regions that are more vulnerable to socioeconomic and environmental crises, it can possibly improve wasting and stunting simultaneously.

    Low child mortality

    • India’s relatively better performance in the other component of GHI — child mortality — merits a mention.
    • Studies suggest that child undernutrition and mortality are usually closely related, as child undernutrition plays an important facilitating role in child mortality.
    • However, India appears to be an exception in this regard.
    • This implies that though India was not able to ensure better nutritional security for all children under five years, it was able to save many lives due to the availability of and access to better health facilities.

    Conclusion

    The low ranking does not mean that India fares uniformly poor in every aspect. This ranking should prompt us to look at our policy focus and interventions and ensure that they can effectively address the concerns raised by the GHI, especially against pandemic-induced nutrition insecurity.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Policy Wise: India’s Power Sector

    Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: AT and C losses

    Mains level: Paper 3- Salient features of Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020

    Context

    Most discoms are deep into the red as high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses are chipping into their revenues. Against this backdrop, the Electricity (Amendment) Bill of 2020 is a game-changing reform.

    Why the Electricity (Amendment) Bill of 2020 is a game-changing reform

    • De-licensing power distribution: This will provide the consumers with an option of choosing the service provider, switch their power supplier and enable the entry of private companies in distribution, thereby resulting in increased competition.
    • In fact, privatisation of discoms in Delhi has reduced AT&C losses significantly from 55% in 2002 to 9% in 2020.
    • Open access for purchasing power: Open access for purchasing power from the open market should be implemented across States and barriers in the form of cross-subsidy surcharge, additional surcharge and electricity duty being applied by States should be reviewed.
    • Issue of tariff revision: The question of tariffs needs to be revisited if the power sector is to be strengthened.
    • Tariffs ought to be reflective of the average cost of supply to begin with and eventually move to customer category-wise cost of supply in a defined time frame.
    • This will facilitate a reduction in cross-subsidies.
    • Inclusion in GST: Electrical energy should be covered under GST, with a lower rate of GST, as this will make it possible for power generator/transmission/distribution utilities to get a refund of input credit, which in turn will reduce the cost of power.
    • Use of smart meters: Technology solutions such as installation of smart meters and smart grids which will reduce AT&C losses and restore financial viability of the sector.
    • The impetus to renewable energy: The impetus to renewable energy, which will help us mitigate the impact of climate change, is much needed.
    • Despite its inherent benefits, the segment has shown relatively slow progress with an estimated installed capacity of 5-6 GW as on date, well short of the 2022 target.
    • The Bill also underpins the importance of green energy by proposing a penalty for non-compliance with the renewable energy purchase obligations which mandate States and power distribution companies to purchase a specified quantity of electricity from renewable and hydro sources
    • Strengthening the regulatory architecture: This will be done by appointing a member with a legal background in every electricity regulatory commission and strengthening the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity.
    • This will ensure faster resolution of long-pending issues and reduce legal hassles.
    • Authority for contractual obligation: Provision in the Bill such as the creation of an Electricity Contract Enforcement Authority to supervise the fulfillment of contractual obligations under power purchase agreement, cost reflective tariffs and provision of subsidy through DBT are commendable.

    Conclusion

    Early passage of the Bill is critical as it will help unleash a path-breaking reform for bringing efficiency and profitability to the distribution sector.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Medical Education Governance in India

    NEET hasn’t created the equality of opportunity

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with NEET

    Context

    The Tamil Nadu government has passed an Act seeking an exemption from treating NEET as the sole and mandatory requirement for medical admission in the state. The Act, which is yet to get approval from the President.

    NEET issue in Tamil Nadu

    • The Justice A K Rajan committee was appointed by the state government of Tamil Nadu to examine whether NEET is an equitable method of selection.
    • Its report lends credence to the belief that NEET tends to give an advantage to students from privileged backgrounds.
    • It also observed that NEET, in terms of orientation, is biased towards the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
    • In the section titled ‘Size of coaching market’, the report brings out two poignant facts.
    • One, by inadvertently creating a “market for coaching”, NEET has helped to create an “extractive industry of coaching” as an essential condition for clearing it.
    • Two, the coaching fees are not only high, but are beyond the reach of many, especially the poor and marginalised.
    • Acting upon the committee’s recommendation, the Tamil Nadu government has passed an Act seeking an exemption from treating NEET.
    • The Act, which is yet to get approval from the President.
    •  An educational intervention which was introduced as a solution to foster equality of opportunity has turned out to be the primary cause of deepening inequality of participation and opportunity.

    Important questions

    • There are at least two important questions.
    • Equality of opportunity: First, does NEET help foster equality of opportunity for everyone without unduly advantaging or disadvantaging anyone?
    • Second, is NEET’s bias towards CBSE justifiable in an immensely diverse country like ours, where varied school curricula coexist with a highly unequal access to financial and educational resources and opportunities?
    • The question here is: How can NEET promote parity of participation when aspiring first-generation students from marginalised and poor households participate from a highly unequal position in the first place?
    • NEET disregards the fact that the terms and conditions of participation are highly unequal and biased.

    Way forward

    • The National Education Policy (NEP 2020) envisions a curriculum and pedagogy which will promote holistic learning, social responsibility and multilingualism, among other things.
    • It is important, therefore, to significantly restructure the focus of NEET keeping in mind the spirit of NEP and varied school curricula in regional languages.

    Conclusion

    A restructured NEET, which does not require intensive and repeated coaching as a prerequisite and is not biased towards any board, can go a long way in promoting the parity of participation and nourishing the capacity to aspire, especially of the poor and marginalised.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Defence Sector – DPP, Missions, Schemes, Security Forces, etc.

    Securing the States

    op-ed snap | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Various Security Forces, Agencies & Their Mandates

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Section 139 of the BSF Act

    Mains level: Paper 3- BSF powers

    Context

    The Ministry of Home Affairs recently issued a notification extending the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force from 15 km to a depth of 50 km along the international borders in three states — Punjab, Assam and West Bengal.

    Background of the notification about jurisdiction of BSF

    • The last notification of the MHA (July 3, 2014), which defined the jurisdiction of the BSF, stated that the force could operate in the entire states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya without any restrictions whatsoever.
    • In Gujarat, it had jurisdiction up to a depth of 80 km and in Rajasthan up to 50 km.
    • In Punjab, Assam and West Bengal, the BSF jurisdiction was up to a depth of 15 km only.
    • Under the latest notification issued on October 11, 2021, there is no change in the northeastern states and Rajasthan.
    • In Gujarat, jurisdiction has been reduced from 80 km to 50 km.
    • The controversial change is in Assam, West Bengal and Punjab, where the BSF jurisdiction has been extended from 15 km to 50 km.
    • It is this part of the notification which has generated controversy, though the criticism has been made by leaders of Punjab and West Bengal.

    Why the government of India decided to extend the jurisdiction of BSF?

    • Assam, West Bengal and Punjab have international borders.
    • Changed threat perception: The threat perception from across the international borders has undergone a sea change in the context of recent developments in the Af-Pak region.
    • Efforts to destabilise Punjab: Radical groups of different shades are feeling emboldened and are going to make a determined attempt to destabilise Punjab.
    • Pakistan-sponsored terrorist groups, particularly the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, will almost certainly renew their onslaught in the border states.
    • West Bengal has already undergone a huge demographic change.
    • Assam faces multiple problems of ethnic insurgencies, smuggling, counterfeit currency, drug trafficking, etc.
    • Police need assistance: The police across the country are in a state of atrophy and they need the assistance of central armed police forces even for maintaining normal law and order.
    • As such, their effectiveness against the emerging trans-border threats is suspect.

    Implications for powers of police and federalism

    • The home ministry’s latest notification only seeks to reinforce the capabilities of the state police in securing the states under section 139 of the BSF Act, which empowers the members of the force to discharge certain powers and duties within local limits of the areas specified in the schedule.
    •  The jurisdiction of the state police has neither been curtailed nor its powers reduced in any manner.
    • It is just that the BSF will also be exercising powers of search, seizure and arrest in respect of only the Passport Act 1967, Passport (Entry into India) Act 1920 and specified sections of the Criminal Procedure code.
    • The power to register FIR and investigate the case remains with the state police.
    • The Indian Constitution, no doubt, fulfils some conditions of a federation, but it leans towards a strong Centre.

    Conclusion

    National security is a paramount consideration. It is unfortunate that the BSF is being dragged into political controversy when it would actually be over-stretching itself to strengthen national security.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • India’s Bid to a Permanent Seat at United Nations

    Taking the lid off illicit financial flows

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy,Money-Laundering & Its Prevention

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Pandora papers

    Mains level: Paper 3- Tax evasion and tax avoidance

    Context

    The Pandora Papers, published on October 3, once again expose the illegal activities of the rich and the mighty across the world.

    About the Pandora Papers investigation

    • It is “the world’s largest-ever journalistic collaboration, involving more than 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries”.
    • The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has researched and analysed the approximately 12 million documents in order to unravel the functioning of the global financial architecture.
    • The Pandora Papers, unlike the previous cases, are not from any one tax haven; they are leaked records from 14 offshore services firms. The data pertains to an estimated 29,000 beneficiaries.
    • The 2.94 terabytes of data have exposed the financial secrets of over 330 politicians and public officials, from more than 90 countries and territories.
    • These include 35 current and former country leaders.

    Role of financial centres and banks

    • A large extent of the illicit financial flows have a link to New York City and London, the biggest financial centres in the world that allow financial institutions such as big banks to operate with ease.
    • The big financial entities operating from these cities have been prosecuted for committing illegalities.
    • In 2012, an investigation into the London Interbank Offered Rate or LIBOR — crucial in calculating interest rates — led to the fining of leading banks such as Barclays, UBS, Rabobank and the Royal Bank of Scotland for manipulation.
    • These banks also operate a large number of subsidiaries in tax havens to help illicit financial flows.

    Modus operandi

    • Tax havens enable the rich to hide the true ownership of assets by using: trusts, shell companies and the process of ‘layering’.
    • Financial firms offer their services to work this out for the rich.
    • They provide ready-made shell companies with directors, create trusts and ‘layer’ the movement of funds.
    • The process of layering involves moving funds from one shell-company in one tax haven to another in another tax haven and liquidating the previous company.
    • This way, money is moved through several tax havens to the ultimate destination.
    • Since the trail is erased at each step, it becomes difficult for authorities to track the flow of funds.
    • It appears that most of the rich in the world use such manipulations to lower their tax liability even if their income is legally earned.

    Why funds are moved to the tax havens?

    • Even citizens of countries with low tax rates use tax havens.
    • Over the three decades, tax havens have enabled capital to become highly mobile, forcing nations to lower tax rates to attract capital.
    • This has led to the ‘race to the bottom’, resulting in a shortage of resources with governments to provide public goods, etc., in turn adversely impacting the poor.
    • Lowering tax liability: It appears that most of the rich in the world use such manipulations to lower their tax liability even if their income is legally earned.
    • Moving funds out of reach of creditors: Revelations suggest that funds are moved out of national jurisdiction to spirit them away from the reach of creditors and not just governments.
    • Many fraudsters are in jail but have not paid their creditors even though they have funds abroad.

    Challenges in checking the illicit financial flows

    • The very powerful who need to be onboard to curb illicit financial flows (as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or the OECD is trying) are the beneficiaries of the system and would not want a foolproof system to be put in place to check it.
    • Strictly speaking, not all the activity being exposed by the Pandora Papers may be illegal due to tax evasion or the hiding of proceeds of crime.
    • The authorities will have to prove if the law of the land has been violated.
    • Operators outside the purview of tax authorities: Many Indians have become non-resident Indians or have made some relative into an NRI who can operate shell companies and trusts outside the purview of Indian tax authorities.
    • That is why prosecution has been difficult in the earlier cases of data leakage from tax havens.
    • The Supreme Court of India-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up in 2014 has not been able to make a dent.
    • Role of organised sector: The Government’s focus on the unorganised sector as the source of black income generation is also misplaced since data indicate that it is the organised sector that has been the real culprit and also spirits out a part of its black incomes.

    Way forward

    • Global minimum tax: Recent development has been the agreement among almost 140 countries to levy a 15% minimum tax rate on corporates.
    • Though it is a long shot, this may dent the international financial architecture.
    • Ending banking secrecy: Other steps needed to tackle the curse of illicit financial flows are ending banking secrecy and a Tobin tax on transactions; neither of which the OECD countries are likely to agree to.

    Consider the question “How illicits financial flows affect the economies of the nations? What are the challenges in curbing it?” 

    Conclusion

    To curb the illicit financial flows, the global community needs to reach a consensus on several issues and tackle the challege collectively.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Civil Services Reforms

    Why India’s bureaucracy needs urgent reform

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Article 312

    Mains level: Paper 2- Reforms in bureaucracy

    Context

    The bureaucracy that took India through the last 75 years can’t be the one to take it through the next 75 — we need a proactive, imaginative, technology-savvy, enabling bureaucracy.

    Role of bureaucracy and challenges it faces

    • The civil services, and the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in particular played important role in holding India together post-Independence.
    • Much of the impressive nation-building across sectors happened because of their dedication and commitment.
    • It is also forgotten that the bureaucracy, unlike the private sector, is a creature of the Constitution and is bound by multiple rules, laws, and procedures.
    • Understaffed: As per estimates compiled by the Institute of Conflict Management, the government of India (GOI) has about 364 government servants for every 1,00,000 residents, with 45 per cent in the railways alone.
    • About 60 per cent and 30 per cent are in Groups C and D, respectively, leaving a skeletal skilled staff of just about 7 per cent to man critical positions.
    • We are grossly understaffed.
    • Inaction: Further, faced with extensive judicial overreach reporting to an often rapacious, short-sighted political executive, and a media ever ready to play the role of judge, jury and executioner, the bureaucracy has in large part found comfort in inaction and ensuring audit-proof file work.

    Suggestions

    • Get out of business: That we need not be in many sectors is well-recognised — leave them to the markets — and politicians must get bureaucrats out of business, in more ways than one.
    • Prevent punitive actions: To increase the officers’ willingness to take decisions, one possible solution is to legally prevent enforcement agencies from taking punitive action, like arrest for purely economic decisions without any direct evidence of kickbacks.
    • Lateral entry: The toughest challenge is to change an inactive bureaucracy to one that feels safe in taking genuine risks.
    • Lateral entry needs to expand to up to 15 per cent of Joint/Additional and Secretary-level positions in GOI.
    • Recruitment process: Changes in recruitment procedures, like the interview group spending considerable time with the candidates, along with psychometric tests, will improve the incoming pool of civil servants.
    • Evaluation: Most importantly, after 15 years of service, all officers must undergo a thorough evaluation to enable them to move further, and those who do not make it should be put out to pasture.
    • Adoption of technology: Every modern bureaucracy in the world works on technology-enabled productivity and collaboration tools.
    •  India procures about $600 billion worth of goods and services annually — can’t all payments be done electronically?

    Consider this question ” The civil services held India together after Independence, but if the country’s potential is to be realised, existing problems of inefficiency and inaction must be fixed. In light of this, examine the factors reasponsible for inefficiency and suggest the reforms.”

    Conclusion

    India cannot hope to get to a $5-trillion economy without a modern, progressive, results-oriented bureaucracy, one which says “why not?” instead of “why?” when confronted with problems.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Climate Change Negotiations – UNFCCC, COP, Other Conventions and Protocols

    Climate finance

    op-ed snap | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Adaptation Gap Report

    Mains level: Paper 3- Climate finance

    Context

    In the run-up to the 26th UNFCCC media reports have claimed that developed countries are inching closer to the target of providing $100 billion annually. This view has been bolstered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which claimed that climate finance provided by developed countries had reached $78.9 billion in 2018.

    Issue of climate financing and claim of reaching the target of $100 billion

    • These claims reaching the target of $100 billion annually is erroneous.
    • First, the OECD figure includes private finance and export credits.
    • Public finance: Developing countries have insisted that developed country climate finance should be from public sources and should be provided as grants or as concessional loans.
    • However, the OECD report makes it clear that the public finance component amounted to only $62.2 billion in 2018, with bilateral funding of about $32.7 billion and $29.2 billion through multilateral institutions.
    • Nature of finance: Significantly, the final figure comes by adding loans and grants. Of the public finance component, loans comprise 74%, while grants make up only 20%.
    • The report does not say how much of the total loan component of $46.3 billion is concessional.
    • Non-concessional loans: From 2016 to 2018, 20% of bilateral loans, 76% of loans provided by multilateral development banks and 46% of loans provided by multilateral climate funds were non-concessional.
    • Between 2013 and 2018, the share of loans has continued to rise, while the share of grants decreased.
    • The OECD reports on climate finance have long been criticised for inflating climate finance figures.
    •  In contrast to the OECD report, Oxfam estimates that in 2017-18, out of an average of $59.5 billion of public climate finance reported by developed countries, the climate-specific net assistance ranged only between $19 and $22.5 billion per year.
    •  The 2018 Biennial Assessment of UNFCCC’s Standing Committee on Finance reports that on average, developed countries provided only $26 billion per year as climate-specific finance between 2011-2016.

    Broken commitments from the US on climate financing

    • U.S. President Joe Biden recently said that the U.S. will double its climate finance by $11.4 billion annually by 2024.
    • It is Congress that will decide on the quantum after all.
    • The U.S. also has a history of broken commitments, having promised $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) under President Barack Obama, but delivering only $1 billion.
    • The future focus of U.S. climate finance is the mobilisation of private sector investment.
    • The bulk of the money coming in would be through private funds, directed to those projects judged “bankable” and not selected based on developing countries’ priorities and needs.

    Finance skews toward mitigation

    • Climate finance has also remained skewed towards mitigation, despite the repeated calls for maintaining a balance between adaptation and mitigation.
    • The 2016 Adaptation Gap Report of the UN Environment Programme had noted that the annual costs of adaptation in developing countries could range from $140 to $300 billion annually by 2030 and rise to $500 billion by 2050.
    • Currently available adaptation finance is significantly lower than the needs expressed in the Nationally Determined Contributions submitted by developing countries.

    Conclusion

    Delivering on climate finance is fundamental to trust in the multilateral process. Regrettably, while developing countries will continue to pressure developed countries to live up to their promises, the history of climate negotiations is not in their favour.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.

    Agri-food systems need a transformative change

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Agriculture and related issues,PDS, Buffer Stock & Food Security

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: FAO

    Mains level: Paper 3- Reorienting agri-food systems

    Context

    There is an urgent need for reorientation of the long-term direction of agri-food systems to not only enhance farm incomes but also ensure better access to safe and nutritious foods.

    Challenge of malnutrition in India

    • The findings from the first round of the Fifth National Family Health Survey suggest that nutrition-related indicators have worsened in most States.
    • In addition, findings from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (2016-18) have highlighted the role of micro-nutrient malnutrition.
    • Pathways for nutritional security consist of improving dietary diversity, kitchen gardens, reducing post-harvest losses, making safety net programmes more nutrition-sensitive, women’s empowerment, enforcement of standards and regulations, improving Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, nutrition education, and effective use of digital technology.

    Agri-food system: Significance and challenges it faces

    • The agri-food systems are the most important part of the Indian economy.
    • India produces sufficient food, feed and fibre to sustain about 18% of the world’s population (as of 2020). Agriculture contributes about 16.5% to India’s GDP and employs 42.3% of the workforce (2019-20).
    • A sustainable agri-food system is one in which a variety of sufficient, nutritious and safe foods are made available at an affordable price to everyone, and nobody goes hungry or suffers from any form of malnutrition.
    • However, the country’s agri-food systems are facing new and unprecedented challenges, especially related to economic and ecological sustainability, nutrition and the adoption of new agricultural technologies.
    • The edifice of India’s biosecurity remains vulnerable to disasters and extreme events.

    Way forward: Reorienting agri-food systems

    • There is an urgent need for reorientation of the long-term direction of agri-food systems to not only enhance farm incomes but also ensure better access to safe and nutritious foods.
    • Additionally, the agri-food systems need to be reoriented to minimise cost on the environment and the climate.
    • This need is recognised by the theme of World Food Day 2021: ‘Our actions are our future. Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life’.
    • FAO’s support for the transformation of agri-food systems is rooted in agro-ecology.
    • The more diverse an agricultural system, the greater its ability to adapt to shocks.
    • Different combinations of integrated crop-livestock-forestry-fishery systems can help farmers produce a variety of products in the same area, at the same time or in rotation.
    • In January this year, FAO in collaboration with NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Agriculture convened a National Dialogue to evolve a framework for the transition to a more sustainable agri-food systems by 2030 and identify pathways for enhancing farmers’ income and achieving nutritional security.

    Consider the question “What are the challenges facing agri-food systems in India? Suggest the pathways to transform the agri-food system to enhance farm income and ensure food and nutrition security.”

    Conclusion

    Food systems can help combat environmental degradation or climate change. Sustainable agri-food systems can deliver food security and nutrition for all, without compromising the economic, social and environmental bases.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now