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  • Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Produce

    How green are India’s agri-exports?

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Issues Related To Farm Subsidies & Msp,PDS, Buffer Stock & Food Security

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Agri-exports from India

    Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with India's agri-exports

    The article highlights the unsustainability of agri-exports owing to their water-intensive nature and subsidies provided in their production.

    India’s agri-exports

    • Agri-exports touched $41.8 billion in FY 2020-21, registering a growth of 18 per cent over the previous year.
    • Amongst the various agri-commodity exports, rice ranks first with 17.7 million tonnes valued at $8.8 billion, roughly 21 per cent of the total value of agri-exports.
    • It is followed by marine products ($6 billion), spices ($4 billion), bovine (buffalo) meat ($3.2 billion) and sugar ($2.8 billion).

    Trend analysis of agri-exports

    • During the last seven years, agri-exports have remained lower than the level reached in FY2013-14 ($43.3 billion).
    • That was when the highest agri-trade surplus (exports minus imports) was generated ($27.8 billion).
    • That was also when Indian agriculture was most globally integrated, with agri-trade (exports plus imports) touching 20 per cent of the agri-GDP.
    • It has slid to 13.5 per cent by FY2020-21, indicating India is becoming less globally competitive in exports and more protectionist in imports, presumably in the name of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
    • It is high time to review current agri-trade policies and accompanying tariff structures.

    Why sustainability of agri-exports is a concern?

    • From a strategic point of view, however, one must ask whether this growth rate can be sustained over a longer period, and the implications it has for Indian agriculture.
    • Water consumption: India is a water-stressed country with per capita water availability of 1,544 cubic metres in 2011, down from 5,178 cubic metres in 1951.
    • It is well known that a kg of sugar has a virtual water intake of about 2,000 litres.
    • In 2020-21, India exported 7.5 million tonnes of sugar, implying that at least 15 billion cubic metres of water was exported through sugar alone.
    • Rice, needs around 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water for irrigating a kg, depending upon topography.
    • Also, rice cultivation contributes to more than 18 per cent of the GHG emission generated from agriculture.
    • Subsidies: Power and fertiliser subsidies account for about 15 per cent of its value in states like Punjab and Haryana.
    • If these subsidies are withdrawn, rice will not be as preferred a crop with farmers as it is today.

    Way forward

    •  Farming practices such as alternate wetting drying (AWD), direct-seeded rice (DSR) and micro-irrigation will have to be taken up on a war footing.
    • Farmers may be incentivised and rewarded to save water, switch from paddy and sugar to other less water guzzler crops, and reduce the carbon footprint.
    • It is high time that policymakers revisit the entire gamut of rice and sugar systems from their MSP/FRP to their production in an environmentally sustainable manner.
    • At least in the case of rice, procurement will have to be limited to the needs of PDS, and within PDS, it is high time to introduce the option of direct cash transfers.

    Consider the question “Rice and sugar forms the part of India’s agri-basket. However, there are concerns over their sustainability. What are the reasons for concerns and suggest the measure to deal with these concerns” 

    Conclusion

    To maintain the sustainability of the agri-exports, crops must be produced efficiently and with minimal subsidies. The government needs to take steps to ensure that with rice and sugar.

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  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    Centre must make way for states in Covid fight

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Role of the States in health crisis

    The States are better equipped to deal with the health emergencies and the Centre needs to augment them in their efforts. The article deals with this issue.

    Role of the States in health crisis

    • Covid-19 pandemic is a national crisis calling for concerted efforts by both, the Government of India (GoI) and state governments.
    • Health is a state subject, and the states have been pioneering many health programmes on their own, some with support and funding from the GoI, for a very long time.
    • The number of employees in the health wing of the GoI is negligible as compared to that in any state government.
    • The GoI must help them, motivate them to do better and assist them in their task.
    • Also, the GoI must and can play a major role is in vaccination.

    Role of the Central government

    • It must try to augment supplies by encouraging companies to produce more and through imports/gifts.
    •  However, whatever it procures must be allotted to states in proportion to their eligible population.
    • State governments must be involved in this policy.
    • The vaccination policy may be left to the state governments based on the allocation. 
    • The GoI must also augment supplies of critical medical goods through imports and donations from friendly nations in view of their acute shortage.
    • It must distribute them to the needy states transparently and equitably.

    Steps that need to be taken

    • Lockdowns need to be lifted in a calibrated manner depending on local conditions.
    • Lockdowns are not the solution, they just buy breathing time which can be used by governments to ramp up capacity.
    • State governments must set up efficient and well-functioning control rooms and telemedicine centres to guide people on home treatment and timely admission to hospitals.
    • The private sector can also be fully involved in these efforts.
    • Bed capacity must be increased in both private and public sectors, with all necessary requirements such as oxygen, medicines, and health workers.
    • It is also important to put in place a standard guidance protocol for health workers and control rooms to guide patients through the disease.
    •  Enforcement of masks and distancing in public places must go on till the country is fully vaccinated.
    • The measures suggested above require hard work and efficient management by state governments, by a team of reputed professionals and civil servants.
    • Daily briefing by a professional, not a politician, is the need of the hour at both the Centre and state level, giving some confidence and assurance to the public.

    Consider the question “In dealing with the health crisis the Union Government and the State governments are better placed for certain roles.  In light of this, examine the important role of the States in dealing with the Covid pandemic and how the Union government can complement it.”

    Conclusion

    The central government must realise that states are on the forefront in this war, and therefore, play a supporting and proactive role. It has only a minor, behind-the-scenes role in the health sector.

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  • Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

    What the G7 message on net-zero emissions means for India

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 3- Net-zero emission targets and G-7

    The article highlights G-7 countries’ emphasis on adoption of net-zero emission target and its implications for India.

    Shifting responsibility to developing countries

    • The Cornwall G7 summit sought to re-establish a common purpose among the richest democracies of the world.
    • The G7 agreed “collectively” to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 and called on “all countries, in particular, major emitting economies” to join as part of global efforts.
    • And, ODA (official development assistance) has been made contingent on net-zero emissions by 2050 and deep cuts in emissions in the 2020s.
    • G7 made an equal effort to shift the responsibility to the large developing countries.
    • However, “common and differentiated responsibilities” is the agreed guiding principle for tackling climate change.
    • Differentiation underscores the responsibility of the industrialised countries to lead.

    India’s climate actions

    • India has been a leading stakeholder in climate action and is among the few in the G20 in line to meet their commitments under the Paris Accord.
    • It has also taken on a most ambitious target of 450 GW of renewable power by 2030.
    • India has shown the world the way forward on solar power with producers now offering ultra-competitive tariffs.

    India’s concerns

    • Coal was particularly in the eye of the G7 which stressed “that international investments in unabated coal must stop now” .
    •  India, that continues to rely on coal, could face a crunch in assistance in thermal power.
    • BASIC, comprising India, China, Brazil and South Africa, has so far led the efforts of large developing countries in climate negotiations.
    • But with possible differences of opinion on net zero, BASIC’s clout in future global negotiations is questionable.

    Way forward

    • Finance and technology are the key areas where the industrialised West can and must lead.
    • The collective developed countries’ commitment of $ 100 billion per year was made in Copenhagen in 2009 and is nowhere near being reached.
    • A smallish sum of $2 billion was committed by G7 to accelerating the transition from coal.
    • For India, with its huge developmental needs and global high-table aspirations that require carbon and policy spaces, the imperative is strong diplomatic partnerships with large developing economies that have an inherent interest in GREEN-Growth with Renewable Energy, Entrepreneurship and Nature.

    Conclusion

    India, which has huge developmental needs and global high-table aspirations that require carbon and policy spaces, must protect its interests.

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  • Policy Wise: India’s Power Sector

    Issues faced by Discoms in India

    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: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 3- Issues of Discoms

    The article highlights the need for frequent financial aids to the discoms by the Centre and discusses the factors responsible for this.

    Frequent rescue packages for discoms

    • Recently, there was a sharp decline in the dues owed by power distribution companies, discoms, to power generating companies.
    • Discoms have paid off their dues in part by drawing down a liquidity facility arranged by the Centre last year.
    • This rescue package was arranged to prevent the entire power sector chain from suffering because of the discoms’ inability to meet their obligations. 
    • In the initial years after the introduction of UDAY some states did, in fact, witness an improvement in their financial and operational indicators.
    • But it wasn’t sustained, There has been a sharp deterioration in several parameters.

    Low performance of Discoms

    1) On the basis of AT&C losses

    • A key metric to measure the performance of discoms is AT&C losses.
    • The UDAY scheme had envisaged bringing down these losses to 15 per cent by 2019.
    • However, as per data on the UDAY dashboard, the AT&C losses currently stand at 21.7 per cent at the all-India level.
    • In the case of the low-income north and central-eastern states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh — the losses are considerably higher.

    2) On the basis of cost and revenue per unit

    • On another metric — the gap between discoms’ costs and revenues — the difference, supposed to have been eliminated by now, stands at Rs 0.49 per unit in the absence of regular and commensurate tariff hikes.
    • For the high-income southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, this gap between costs and revenues is significantly higher.

    What are the factors responsible for inefficiencies?

    1) Electrification push without cost restructuring

    • The government’s push for ensuring electrification of all have contributed to greater inefficiency.
    •  To support higher levels of electrification, cost structures need to be reworked, and the distribution network would need to be augmented — in the absence of all this, losses are bound to rise.

    2) Economic fallout of the pandemic

    • With demand from industrial and commercial users falling, revenue from this stream, which is used to cross-subsidise other consumers, has declined, exacerbating the stress on discom finances.
    • A turnaround in the economy will provide some relief, but will not form the basis of a sustained improvement in finances.

    3) Lack of consumer data and metering

    •  Even six years after UDAY was launched, various levels in the distribution chain — the feeder, the distribution transformer (DT) and the consumer — have not been fully metered.
    • As a result, it is difficult to ascertain the level in the chain where losses are occurring.
    • Other than discoms in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, there is also limited data on which consumer is attached to which DT.
    • This lack of data makes it difficult to isolate and identify loss-making areas and take corrective action.

    4) No tariff hike

    • The continuing absence of political consensus at the state level to raise tariffs or to bring down AT&C losses signal a lack of resolve to tackle the issues plaguing the sector.

    Way forward

    • One of the solution centres around a national power distribution company.
    • Another option is to deduct discom dues, owed to both public and private power generating companies, from state balances with the RBI forcing states to take the necessary steps to fix discom finances.
    • The Centre has linked additional state borrowings to the completion of distribution reforms to incentivise states to act.

    Consider the question “Despite several efforts by the Centre to improve the efficiency, discoms continue to perform dismally requiring frequent financial aids. What are the factors responsible for this? Suggest the way forward.” 

    Conclusion

    Short of radical measures — privatisation remains a chimera — it is difficult to see how a sustainable turnaround in the financial and operational position of discoms can be engineered. As the amounts involved rise, minor tinkering isn’t likely to produce the desired results.

    Back2Basics: AT&C losses

    • Distribution loss consists of two parts:
    • a. Technical loss
    • b. Commercial loss.
    • It is also called AT&C loss.
    • AT&C loss is nothing but the sum total of technical and commercial losses and shortage due to non-realization of billed amount.
    • AT&C Loss = (Energy input – Energy billed) * 100 / Energy input.

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  • Time to rethink the Big Tech’s immunity

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: E-Governance

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Regulation of social media and related issues

    The article discusses the need for regulation of social media and counters against placing social media on a higher pedestal for the application of reasonable restrictions. 

    Social media and its regulation

    • Social media is a commercial product that connects people all over the globe.
    • It allows people to converse with each other through profiles both known and anonymous.
    • The object is purely commercial, that is to make money.
    • The fact that a commercial product could be used for a social purpose does not make the product a social good.
    • The new Information Technology Rules, 2021 formulated by the Government of India attempts to bring in a minimum regulatory standard to social media.
    • The present amendment to the rules is to formulate a broad and soft-touch regulation mechanism for use of the product, just like one would for a good like a car or a service like chartered accountancy.

    Issues with regulation of social media

    1) Immunity from content posted on platforms

    •  Social media companies enjoy an immunity — they are not considered responsible for the contents posted on them.
    • The immunity is granted on the ground that social media is merely a platform or a sort of a glorified postbox.
    • It is incorporated under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011 framed under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.
    • This protection is itself unique as it is not extended to newspapers, magazines or even websites.
    • This protection is given by the government as an exceptional measure.
    • The present amendment to rules only tries to update and make these rules workable considering the latest global developments.

    2) Constitution allows for restriction of freedom of speech

    • The Constitution itself gives us a restricted right to freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a) and 19(2).
    • The argument that social media is entitled to some form of higher protection because it exists on the internet is an untenable argument.
    • The Constitution doesn’t recognise a hierarchy of rights depending on the medium through which the freedom of speech is exercised.

    3) Important for political and commercial speech

    • Social media has become so crucial to commercial and political speech in this country, there is an urgent need to regulate it.
    • It has effectively become a public square in which the most important conversations on politics and society are discussed.
    • The function of social media is clearly a public function at the lowest and as a public utility at the high end, and, therefore, automatically subject to regulation and the writ jurisdiction of the courts.

    Conclusion

    For all its significance and importance, social media needs to be regulated. However, the regulations should not hamper the freedom of expression and free speech.

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  • Coronavirus – Economic Issues

    Recovery takes more than reforms

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 3- Increasing the public spending for economic recovery

    The article takes an overview of the impact of the second covid wave and suggests the need for more public spending.

    Impact of reforms in recovery

    • Overlapping State-level lockdowns that started in April have now lasted for almost as long as the nationwide lockdown of 2020, impacting the economy.
    • Output may well have contracted in the beginning of this year.
    • So, though recovery will eventually come, it could be W-shaped rather than V-shaped.
    • It is asserted that the economy will recover due to the reforms planned or already implemented by the government.
    • Since 1991, the term ‘reforms’ has been used to mean both policy changes that remove restrictions on private sector activity in certain areas and those that increase profits in existing lines of production.
    • Recent examples of such reforms include the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan launched in 2020 and the significant lowering of corporate tax in 2019, respectively.
    • However, more reforms may be ineffective in spurring recovery.
    • Presently for the private sector is not undertaking investment given their expectation of the state of the economy in the near future, upon which their revenue will depend.

    Public expenditure

    • In February, believing that the peak of the epidemic had been crossed, the government reverted to fiscal consolidation or the paring down of the fiscal deficit.
    •  Accordingly, it raised its budgeted expenditure by less than 1% in the last Budget.
    • But now, with a possible further contraction of the economy, to continue with the frigid fiscal stance would be disastrous.
    • Data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy show that unemployment has risen in May, indicating slack demand for output.
    • With this knowledge, the private sector is unlikely to respond with alacrity to liberalising reforms.

    Way forward

    • The objective is to revive the economy, public spending is the instrument and the funding must be found.
    •  It need not involve money creation.
    • India’s public debt is low by comparison with the OECD countries, and debt financing remains an option. 
    • Even if money financing is adopted, it need not cause accelerating inflation.
    • How the expansion is financed is less relevant for inflation at least in the near term. 

    Consider the question “Are the economic reforms enough to ensure the recovery of the economy? Also, examine the importance of public spending for economic recovery.”

    Conclusion

    Reforms albeit important for the economy in long run, may not be much effective in an economy battered by the pandemic. What we need is public spending and welfare measures.

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  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    A place for disruptive technology in India’s health sector

    op-ed snap | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Use of disruptive technologies in medical sector

    The adoption of technologies such as AI and blockchain has the potential to transform the medical sector. 

    How new technologies can play important role in medical sector

    1) Blockchain technology

    • Blockchain technology can help in addressing the interoperability challenges that health information and technology systems face.
    • The health blockchain would contain a complete indexed history of all medical data, including formal medical records and health data from mobile applications and wearable sensors.
    • This can also be stored in a secure network and authenticated, besides helping in seamless medical attention.

    2) Big data analytics

    • Big data analytics can help improve patient-based services tremendously such as early disease detection.
    • AI and the Internet of Medical Things, or IoMT are shaping healthcare applications.
    • IoMT is defined as a connected infrastructure of medical devices, software applications, and health systems and services.

    3) Medical autonomous system

    • Medical autonomous systems can also improve health delivery to a great extent and their applications are focused on supporting medical care delivery in dispersed and complex environments with the help of futuristic technologies.
    • This system may also include autonomous critical care system, autonomous intubation, autonomous cricothyrotomy and other autonomous interventional procedures.

    4) Cloud computing

    • Cloud computing is another application facilitating collaboration and data exchanges between doctors, departments, and even institutions and medical providers to enable best treatment.

    Challenges

    • The possible constraints in this effort are standardisation of health data, organisational silos, data security and data privacy, and also high investments.

    Using technology for Universal Health Coverage

    • According to the World Health Organization, Universal health coverage (UHC) is a powerful social equalizer and the ultimate expression of fairness.
    • Studies by WHO show that weakly coordinated steps may lead to stand-alone information and communication technology solutions.
    • India needs to own its digital health strategy that works and leads towards universal health coverage and person-centred care.
    • Such a strategy should emphasise the ethical appropriateness of digital technologies, cross the digital divide, and ensure inclusion across the economy.
    • ‘Ayushman Bharat’ and tools such as Information and Communication Technology could be be fine-tuned with this strategy to promote ways to protect populations.
    • Online consultation should be a key part of such a strategy.

    Using local knowledge

    • In addition to effective national policies and robust health systems, an effective national response must also draw upon local knowledge.
    • Primary health centres in India could examine local/traditional knowledge and experience and then use it along with modern technology.

    Way forward

    • Initial efforts in this direction should involve synchronisation and integration, developing a template for sharing data, and reengineering many of the institutional and structural arrangements in the medical sector.
    • Big data applications in the health sector should help hospitals provide the best facilities and at less cost, provide a level playing field for all sectors, and foster competition.

    Consider the question “Examine the role technologies such as AI and data analytics could play in the medical sector. What are the challenges in the adoption of such technologies?”

    Conclusion

    The above-discussed aspects highlight the potential benefits of the adoption of disruptive technologies in the healthcare system. India should embrace it while addressing the concerns with such technologies.

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  • A new era of partnership in social innovations that can benefit all South Asians

    op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Cooperation among South Asian countries in dealing with pandemic

    Pandemic know no borders. So, dealing with it has necessited global cooperation. The article introduce us to some of the cross-country collaborations in dealing with the pandemic, igniting the hope for new era social partnership to the advantage of South Asia.

    Regionally-coordinated strategy against pandemic

    • Containing Covid pandemic has necessitated global cooperation.
    • The deadly pandemic surge in 2021 makes a regionally coordinated, evidence-driven strategy critical.
    • It is necessary to construct multi-stakeholder regional coalitions to devise new solutions and frugal innovations that can be applied across South Asia.
    • Given our shared and mostly similar social, economic and cultural contexts, local successes must be amplified across South Asia.
    • Despite wide variation in how nations have responded to the pandemic, the most successful strategies find commonality in their adherence to science and attention to local context.

    How successful interventions could be applied across the subcontinent

    • Beliefs, priorities, traditions and aversions to behavioural change are more similar across South Asia.
    • This means that interventions that are successful in changing behaviour in one place are highly likely applicable in other parts of the subcontinent.
    • For example, Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) campaigns to solve the problem of open defecation, developed by Bangladeshi NGOs in partnership with an Indian consultant is now broadly applied across South Asia and beyond.
    • The Grameen Bank microcredit model was an indigenous South Asian innovation that spread rapidly.
    • India’s digitised social protection ecosystem with Aadhaar ids and Jan Dhan accounts serves as a model for the region.

    Changing social norm around mask-wearing

    • The new pan-South Asian consortium in response to Covid-19 evolved out of an experiment conducted in Bangladesh around mask-wearing in rural communities termed as NORM.
    • It was observed that a combination of no-cost distribution, information, reinforcing the message, modeling and endorsement by community leaders (NORM) leads to large, sustained increases in mask usage.
    • NORM implementation teams based in Lahore, Ahmedabad, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Delhi are learning from each other’s successes and failures.
    • The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) quickly implemented the model to reach over one million members in Gujarat.
    •  Additional 1.5 million masks were shipped from Bangladesh to support SEWA’s outreach to other states.
    • Lahore’s commissioner worked with the research team to adapt the NORM model to an urban setting.
    • To manage mild and moderate cases of Covid-19 in rural India, where institutional health care access is limited a host of physicians, scientists and community-based organisations created the Swasth Community Science Alliance.
    • The Masking-Treatment-Vaccine Preparation (MTV) approach offers a sensible strategy to mitigate the pandemic until universal vaccination is achieved.

    Conclusion

    We need to come together to solve problems that affect us all. Let the lasting legacy of this pandemic be a new era of partnership in social innovations that can benefit all South Asians.

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  • Important Judgements In News

    Balancing right to be forgotten with fair criticism and accountability

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Right to be forgotten

    The article discusses the interplay between right to be forgotten and the right of the public to access courts of record, concepts of fair criticism and accountability.

    Context

    The Delhi High Court recently ordered the removal of one of its own judgments from easy access. The High Court recognised that the petitioner may have a right to be forgotten, which must be balanced with the right of the public to access courts of record.

    Right to be forgotten

    • In 2017, the Supreme Court recognised the right to be forgotten as being under the ambit of the right to privacy (specifically, informational privacy) under the Constitution.
    • The Supreme Court observed that a lot of personal information may serve no “legitimate interest”, was “incorrect”, or was not “necessary” or “relevant”.
    • For now, individuals may request data hosts to take down some content, and it may be taken down based on the policies of the respective hosts.
    • There is a general consensus that people should be allowed to modify or delete information uploaded by themselves.
    • However, whether this extends to information uploaded by third parties is uncertain.
    • The right to be forgotten is, generally, the right to have information about a person removed from public access.

    Balancing between right of the public

    • The Delhi High Court recognised that the petitioner may have a right to be forgotten, which must be balanced with the right of the public to access courts of record.
    • Judgments are published for good reasons.
    • Trials held under public scrutiny act as a check against judicial caprices and help in enhancing the confidence of the public in the fairness and objectivity of the administration of justice.
    • The Supreme Court has made is clear that the right to be forgotten was subject to reasonable restrictions based on countervailing rights such as free speech.

    Consider the question “What is right to be forgotten and how it is related to the right to privacy? Examine the issues related to the implementation of the right to be forgotten.”

    Way forward

    • The High Court could have ordered that the name and personal details of the petitioner be redacted while maintaining public access to the judgment itself.

    Conclusion

    The right to be forgotten needs to be studied along with the concepts of fair criticism and accountability.

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  • Electoral Reforms In India

    Electoral bonds

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary,Representation Of People’s Act

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Electoral bond and issues related to it

    Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with electoral bond

    The article highlights the issues with the political funding through electoral bonds.

    Changes made for the electoral bond and issues with them

    • Earlier, only profit-making domestic companies could contribute to political parties; now loss-making companies can too.
    • Earlier, foreign companies or companies where the controlling stake was held by a foreign company couldn’t contribute; now they can. 
    • India’s political parties could theoretically be fully funded by a foreign company operating in India or by a foreign entity through a shell company.
    • Only the ruling party via the State Bank of India (SBI) has a full account of all donations being made via electoral bonds, to itself and to Opposition parties.

    Issues in the Supreme Court verdict

    • In March 2021, the Supreme Court refused to stay the sale of electoral bonds before the West Bengal elections.
    • Instead, the judgment listed several documents which supposedly establish a paper trail on donations and do some ‘match the following’.
    • This is impractical and plainly incorrect.
    • The Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005 enables easier access to information held by public authorities.
    • Suggesting a “match the following” is incorrect for three reasons.

    1) Full scale of registered entities in unknown

    • If we set aside individual donors and focus just on registered entities, we will find that the full scale of registered entities is unknown. 
    • According to back-of-the-envelope calculations, there are close to 25 lakh potential donors comprising just companies and firms.
    • This includes about 12.6 lakh active private limited companies as of January 31, 2021.
    • Firms, unlike companies, have no regulatory mandate to submit their annual reports except for filing their annual tax returns, since their functioning is regulated by Acts other than the Companies Act of 2013.

    2) No disclosure by companies about donation to political parties

    • Even if registered companies filed annual financial statements, many do not disclose political donations.
    • Conveniently, the Finance Bill of 2017 amended Section 182 of the Companies Act of 2013 to remove the requirement for declaring disaggregated donations to political parties.
    • Even if registered companies filed annual financial statements, many do not disclose political donations.

    3) Political parties do not need to disclose their donor

    • Crucially, political parties do not need to disclose their electoral bond donors either.
    • Strictly speaking, political parties are not even supposed to know their electoral bond donors.
    • The only requirement is the annual audit reports with a total of all donations received via electoral bonds.
    • These reports are submitted with great delays.
    • Even if these reports are submitted on time, there is no way to match a donation of a company to that received by a political party as only aggregate amounts are available.

    Implications

    • Electoral bonds give political power to companies, wealthy individual donors, and foreign entities, thus diluting the universal franchise of one voter-one vote.
    •  Every vote is not equally valuable if companies can influence policies through hidden donations.
    •  The winner of this arrangement is the ruling party, whether at the Centre or in a State, and the loser is the average voter.

    Way forward

    • Companies and political parties could exercise moral leadership and voluntarily disclose the identity of recipients and donors, as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha recently did.

    Conclusion

    Opacity in political funding goes against the basic tenets of democracy. What we need is a system of political funding which is transparent and fair.

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