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

Civilsdaily

Login

Type: op-ed snap

  • Parliament – Sessions, Procedures, Motions, Committees etc

    Moving away from parliamentary scrutiny

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Parliament & State Legislatures

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Various committees and their roles.

    Mains level: Paper 2- Role of parliamentary committees

    The article discusses the important role played by the various committees and their significance.

    Committee system for legislative scrutiny

    • Over the years, the Indian Parliament has increasingly adopted the committee system as did the other democracies in the world.
    • This helped in housekeeping, to enhance the efficacy of the House to cope with the technical issues confronting it and to feel the public pulse.
    • But the committee approach also helped to guard its turf and keep it abreast to exercise accountability on the government.

    Important role played by the committees

    • Committees are the guardians of the autonomy of the House: consider the role of committees of scrutiny and oversight.
    • In the discharge of their mandate, the committee can solicit expert advice and elicit public opinion.
    • Besides the standing committees, the Houses of Parliament set up, from time to time, ad hoc committees to enquire and report on specific subjects which include Select Committees of a House or Joint Select Committees of both the Houses.
    • Departmentally-related Standing Committees (DRSCs)  were envisaged to be the face of Parliament in a set of inter-related departments and ministries.

    Issues

    • Committees of scrutiny and advice, both standing and ad hoc, have been confined to the margins or left in the lurch in the last few years.
    • While 60% of the Bills in the 14th Lok Sabha and 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha were wetted by the DRSCs concerned, this proportion came down to 27% in the 16th Lok Sabha.
    • The government has shown extreme reluctance to refer Bills to Select Committees of the Houses or Joint Parliamentary Committees.

    Conclusion

    The government must not forget that the primary role of Parliament is deliberation, discussion and reconsideration, the hallmarks of democratic institutions, and not a platform that endorses decisions already arrived at.

    Back2Bascis: Parliamentary Committees

    Broadly, they are classified into two categories — standing committees and ad hoc committees.

    1) Standing Committees

    • As the name suggests, these committees cover all the ministries and departments of the Government of India.
    • Standing committees are more permanent in nature, and are constituted from time to time in pursuance of the provisions of an Act of Parliament or Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
    • The standing committees are further divided into financial committees and departmentally-related standing committees (DRSCs).
    • There are 24 DRSCs in total — 16 from Lok Sabha and 8 from the Rajya Sabha.
    • Financial committees are of three kinds — the estimates committee, the public accounts committee and the committee on public undertakings.

    2) Ad hoc committees

    • Ad hoc committees are appointed for a specific purpose and they cease to exist after they finish the task assigned to them and submit a report.
    • These include advisory committees and inquiry committees.
    • Advisory committees include select and joint committees on bills.
    • Inquiry committees are constituted to inquire into a specific issue and report on it.

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

    Attend Now

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

    Environmentalism at the core

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Sustainable Development

    Mains level: Paper 3- Sustainable development

    The article explains the importance of focusing on the green supply chain for ensuring sustainability along with the progress of the organisations.

    Sustainability as an essential issue

    • The U.N’s. Millennium Development Goals and the World Bank Group’s global practices have recognised sustainability as an essential issue of global importance.
    • Economic, social and other forms of sustainability have evolved over the years, but it is environmental sustainability that has gained significant popularity.

    Economy and sustainability

    • Some firms have positioned environmental practices at the forefront due to legislation, and industry and government commitments.
    • Several firms have prioritised environmental practices due to compelling regulatory norms, and a potential to manage costs, risks and optimise eco-friendly practices.
    • However, organisations in the manufacturing sector focus on waste reduction and energy efficiency improvements excessively and fail to see the big picture of environmentalism.

    Adopting green supply chains for long-lasting benefits

    • Only through organisational learning can people be urged to work towards long-lasting benefits.
    • In this context, green supply chain practices are useful.
    • These include green procurement, green manufacturing, green distribution, and reverse logistics.
    • With practices starting from acquisition of eco-friendly raw material to disposal/ reuse/ recycle of used products, employees, suppliers, distributors, retailers and customers will be able to integrate environmental concerns in the daily operations of a firm.
    • Thus, green supply chain practices enable organisational learning in environmental sustainability.
    •  Research shows that the positive impacts of environmentalism can only be felt in the long term when they get embedded into organisational learning systems through green supply chain practices.
    • The resultant learning system smoothens the knowledge flow in the organisation.

    Focusing on linkages

    • Linkages between green supply chain practices, corporate environmental performance, corporate economic performance is necessary for an organisation’s progress and environmental protection.
    • When the different players of a manufacturing supply chain realise the inherent benefits associated with organisational learning dimensions, their drive towards environmentalism increases.

    Conclusion

    Policymakers should support this thinking by not merely imposing environmental practices as regulatory norms but by emphasising on the creation of green supply chain-based learning systems in manufacturing.

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

    Attend Now

  • NGOs vs. GoI: The Conflicts and Scrutinies

    Exploring the idea of Social Stock Exchange

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: NGO, SHG & Civil Society

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Social Stock Exchange

    Mains level: Paper 2- Social Stock Exchange

    Context

    • The Securities and Exchange Board’s (SEBI) working group has submitted its report with recommendations regarding the structure, mechanisms, and regulatory framework for the proposed Social Stock Exchange (SSE).

    What are Social Stock Exchanges (SSEs)?

    • An SSE is a platform which allows investors to buy shares in social enterprises vetted by an official exchange.
    • The Union Budget 2019 proposed setting up of first of its kind SSE in India.
    • The SSE will function as a common platform where social enterprises can raise funds from the public.
    • It will function on the lines of major stock exchanges like BSE and NSE. However, the purpose of the Social Stock Exchange will be different – not profit, but social welfare.
    • Under the regulatory ambit of SEBI, a listing of social enterprises and voluntary organizations will be undertaken so that they can raise capital as equity, debt or as units like a mutual fund.

    Issues with the idea of Social Stock Exchange

    • SSE exists in one form or another in UK, Singapore, South Africa, Canada and Brazil, but it is yet to take off in any country.
    • It has been an instrument focussed on social enterprises with rather poor results.
    • The proposed SSE in our country could have been an interesting innovation if it was first.
    • Replicating an experiment from elsewhere in an extremely complex environment of endemic poverty, high inequality and regional variation does not seem a reasoned decision.
    • It is therefore important to analyse why it has been pushed as a key policy.

    Why civil society is sceptical

    • The 2020-21 Union Budget says that not-for-profit organisations will need to apply every five years for income tax registration to ascertain their charitable status.
    • They will also need to renew their 80(G) certificate that provides tax relief to their donors.
    • The not-for-profit sector would not be able to survive without the tax-exempt charitable status.
    • These restrictions will open the gates to corruption and bullying by the tax and government bureaucracy.
    • The SEBI working group was constituted of business leaders, government and SEBI officials with a token representative from civil society.
    • Composition of the committee reflects the real intent of the SSE, which is to create instruments for market to enter the social sector.
    • However, the way the exchange is envisioned makes it clear that the interests of the private sector are guiding the idea of SSE.

    Will the entry of private sector benefit social sector

    • The proponents of the SSE argue that it would help set standards and a performance matrix for the social sector.
    • SSE is also expected to help bench-marking of sector actors (credibility checks), organise information and data, help in impact assessments, and do capacity building for the sector.

    Solving complex social problems

    • Poverty or injustice are essentially systemic and political questions that need multi-pronged dynamic engagement.
    • Developing set standards of impact assessment and performance matrix has the risk of privileging only one approach to the developmental challenges at hand.
    • The SSE would create more intermediaries and benefit larger organisations.
    • More than 99 per cent of the three million NGOs in the country are in the small category and will be untouched by the SSE.

    Conclusion

    The core business of the SSE is to strengthen the social sector and bring new resources to it, SEBI for sure itself would admit that it is not the appropriate anchor.

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

    Attend Now

  • RTI – CIC, RTI Backlog, etc.

    Upholding transparency in governance

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: RTI

    Mains level: Paper 2- RTI and issue of transparency

    The article discusses the issue of growing lack of transparency in the functioning of government.

    Issues with Transparent Governance in India

    1) Electoral bond

    •  They were introduced in February 2017— they allowed anonymous donations to political parties and, therefore, protected the privacy of the donors.
    • The Election Commission of India (ECI) criticised the opacity of this financial mechanism.
    • The ECI told the government that this arrangement would prevent the state from ascertaining whether a political party has taken any donation in violation of provisions under Section 29B of the Representation of the People Act.
    • Section 29B prohibits the political parties from taking donations from government companies and foreign sources.
    • Electoral bonds also made it impossible to check whether a company was giving to parties more than what the Companies Act (2013) permitted, that is 7.5 per cent of the net average profit of the three preceding financial years.

    2) Sealed envelopes

    • Sealed envelope has become a modus operandi in several Indian institutions, including the Supreme Court (SC).
    • In the case of political funding by electoral bonds or otherwise, a three-judge bench in 2019 directed political parties to submit the details of donations received to the ECI in sealed cover.
    • The Assam administration had to show the progress it was making in the implementation of the National Register of Citizens by submitting reports in sealed covers.

    3) Undermining RTI

    (A) Reluctance to fill vacancies

    • The government did not appoint a Chief Information Commissioner for a year after the incumbent retired in August 2014.
    •  Similaryly, government did not fill vacant information commissioner posts in the Central Information Commission (CIC) between 2016 and 2018.
    • The backlog of pending appeals had reached 30,000 cases in late 2019 as the CIC has become a rather dysfunctional body.

    (B) Government refusing to disclose infromation

    • The government refused to disclose information which was previously available under the RTI Act.
    • Queries about phone tapping are not responded to anymore.
    • In 2016-17, the home and finance ministries rejected close to 15 per cent of the applications they received while the RBI and public sector banks rejected 33 per cent.
    • The RBI, for instance, refused to give any information about the decision-making process that led to demonetisation.

    (C) Limiting the powers of CIC

    • During the 2019 Monsoon Session of Parliament, government amended the RTI Act to limit the power of the CIC.
    • The five-year fixed tenure for the Chief Information Commissioner and information commissioners was abolished.
    • Their salaries were not fixed any more,  but notified separately by the government.

    4.Diluting Whisleblower’s Protection Act

    • Whistleblowers can now be prosecuted for possessing the documents on which the complaint has been made.
    • Issues flagged by them have to be in “public interest”.
    • Issues flagged should not be “affecting the sovereignty and integrity of India”, related to “commercial confidence” or “information received in confidence from a foreign government.

    5.Issues with statistical information

    • The National Statistical Commission and the Chief Statistician of India faced a credibility crisis when the new GDP series was released.
    • Similarly, the National Crime Records Bureau has been affected by delays (its 2017 report was released in October 2019) and deletions.
    • The National Sample Survey Office has also raised several concerns.

    Conclusion

    Transparency is not only necessary for maintaining a democratic polity, it is also necessary for making the economy work. Government actions must be informed by this fact.

    B2BASICS

    Electoral bond

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

    Attend Now

  • Higher Education – RUSA, NIRF, HEFA, etc.

    Issues with E-learning in India

    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- Online education and issues with it

    Pandemic has forced learning to the online mode. But there are several concerns with the online leaning. The article discusses the same.

    Providing learning opportunity in pandemic

    • The main thrust of providing learning opportunities while schools are shut is online teaching.
    • There are several sets of guidelines and plans issues by the government, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for this purpose.
    • The Internet space is teeming with learning schemes, teaching videos, sites and portals for learning opportunities.

    3 issues with online learning

    1) Increasing inequality

    • Calamities, be they natural or man-made, affect the underprivileged the hardest,  COVID-19 is no exception.
    •  The COVID-19 shutdown has affected opportunity for the poor even harder than their counterparts from well-to-do sections of society.
    • The government began plans for students with no online access only by the end of August.
    • But online or digital education is available is for students with only online access.
    • Thus, digital India may become even more unequal and divided than it already is.

    2) Pedagogical issues leading to bad quality education

    • The quality of online teaching-learning leaves much to be desired.
    • Listening to lectures on the mobile phone, copying from the board where the teacher is writing, frequent disconnections can hardly and organically connect the child’s present understanding with the logically organised bodies of human knowledge.
    • The secondary students are in a better position still because of their relative independence in learning and possible self-discipline.
    • The beginners in the lower primary can get nothing at all from this mode of teaching.

    3)  An unwarranted thrust on online education, post-COVID-19

    • All reliable studies seem to indicate that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the classroom helps in already well-functioning systems, and either has no benefits or negative impact in poorly performing systems.
    • That does not indicate much hope from IT in our education system.
    • Transformation of schools in the current understanding of pedagogy, suitability of learning material and quality of learning provided through IT will further devastate the already inadequate system of school education in the country.
    • Of course, IT can be used in a balanced manner where it can help; but it should not be seen as a silver bullet to remedy all ills in the education system.

    Importance of institutional environment

    • The institutional environment plays an important role online teaching.
    • Even when the institutions function sub-optimally, students themselves create an environment that supports their growth morally, socially and intellectually in conversations and interactions with each other.
    • The online mode of teaching completely forecloses this opportunity.

    Conclusion

    Our democracy and public education system should try to address the issues raised here while promoting the online mode of education.

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

    Attend Now

  • Agricultural Sector and Marketing Reforms – eNAM, Model APMC Act, Eco Survey Reco, etc.

    Putting farmers first

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Transport & Marketing Of Agricultural Produce

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 3- Agri bills related to agri markets and contract farming

    The faremers have been protesting against the agri bill. This article explains the rationale behind the bill and how it could help the farmers.

    Challenges Indian agriculture face

    • Indian agriculture has been characterised by fragmentation due to small holding sizes, weather dependence, production uncertainties, huge wastage and market unpredictability.
    • This makes agriculture risky and inefficient with respect to both input and output management.

    Recent steps to help farmers

    • The  government has taken various steps in this direction, for example-
    • The implementation of the Swaminathan committee’s recommendation regarding fixing MSP at least 50 per cent profits on the cost of production.
    • Increasing the agri budget by more than 11 times in the past 10 years.
    • Establishing e-NAM mandis.
    • An Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Package, the scheme for the formation of 10,000 FPOs, etc.

    What the agri bills seek to achieve

    • The bills will create an ecosystem where farmers and traders enjoy the freedom of choice of sale and purchase of farming produce.
    • This freedom of choice will help to facilitate remunerative prices to farmers through competitive alternative trading channels.
    • This will promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade and commerce of farming produce outside the physical premises of markets notified under state agricultural produce marketing legislation.
    • The farm bills also lay the ground of a legal framework for fair and transparent farming agreements between farmers and sponsors.
    • This framework will facilitate greater certainty in quality and price, adoption of quality and grading standards, linkage of farming agreements with insurance and credit instruments and also enable the farmer to access modern technology and better inputs.
    • These recommendations have been made by the Swaminathan Committee, which suggested the removal of the mandi tax, creation of a single market and facilitating contract farming.

    Safeguard in the bill

    • The bill have several safeguards such as the prohibition of sale, lease or mortgage of farmers’ land and farmers’ land is also protected against any recovery.
    • Farming agreements cannot be entered into, if they are in derogation of the rights of a sharecropper.
    • Farmers will have access to flexible prices subject to a guaranteed price in agreements.
    • The sponsor has to ensure the timely acceptance of delivery and payment of produce to farmers and farmers’ liability is limited to only the advance received and cost of inputs provided by the sponsor.
    • Disputes will be resolved through a Conciliation Board, to be constituted by the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), failing which an aggrieved party may approach the concerned SDM for the settlement of the dispute.

    Consider the question “What are the changes introduced by the two recent bills passed by the government related to agri markets and contract farming how will these changes be helpful to the farmers?”

    Conclusion

    These farm bills will bring transformative changes in our agricultural sector and reduce wastage, increase efficiency, unlock value for our farmers and increase farmers’ incomes.

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

    Attend Now

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Russia

    Difficulties faced by India and Russia in following convergent policies

    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: Indra exercise

    Mains level: Paper 2-India-Russia relations

    The article analyses the challenges in the India-Russia relations against the background of changing global order.

    Context

    • India decided to pull out of Russia’s Kavkaz 2020 military exercises, where it was scheduled to participate alongside other Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states.

    Russia’s role in India-China dispute

    • The ongoing conflict between two prominent members, and both close partners of Russia, has given rise to concerns about its impact on India-Russia ties.
    • Moscow has been playing a quiet diplomatic role during the recent border clashes without actively taking sides.
    • Recent visits by India’s Defence Minister to Russia saw detailed discussions around furthering the India-Russia defence relationship alongside the promise to accelerate certain supplies based on New Delhi’s requirements.
    • The September visit coincided with the biannual Indo-Russian naval exercises, INDRA.

    India-Russia relations

    • India and Russia have spent the past few years strengthening their partnership, particularly since the 2018 Sochi informal summit.
    • From substantive defence engagement to regional questions in Central Asia, Afghanistan and West Asia, a conversation with Moscow remains an important element of Indian foreign policy.
    • India and Russia are pragmatic players looking at maximising their strategic manoeuvrability,
    • Both recognise the value of having a diversified portfolio of ties. .
    • India on its part has sought to include Russia in its vision of the Indo-Pacific that does not see the region as ‘a strategy or as a club of limited members’.
    • Reports indicate that a proposal for a India-Russia-Japan trilateral is being explored.

    Multilateral forums and Challenges in India-Russia relation

    • The multilateral forums are important as they foster continued India-Russia cooperation at the bilateral and multilateral levels.
    •  Increasingly divergent foreign policies of its members pose challenges of agenda-setting and overall scope.
    • At this moment of flux, countries such as India and Russia are keeping all their options open.
    • We live in a ‘curious world’ where one cannot view engagement with different parties as a ‘zero-sum game’.
    • Worsening India-China ties or a burgeoning China-Russia relationship does not automatically mean a breakdown of the India-Russia strategic partnership.
    •  It is the combination of a changing regional order, closer Russia-China ties and India’s alignment with the United States and other like-minded countries to manage Beijing’s rise that has the potential to create hurdles for India-Russia cooperation in the Asia.

    Consider the question “Despite difficulties in pursuing convergent policies, India-China relations retains its relevance. Comment.”

    Conclusion

    Although the evolving global order makes it difficult for India and Russia to pursue fully convergent policies, it does not preclude the bilateral relationship from retaining its relevance.

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

    Attend Now

  • Agricultural Sector and Marketing Reforms – eNAM, Model APMC Act, Eco Survey Reco, etc.

    Understanding the opposition of farmers to agriculture Bills

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Issues Related To Farm Subsidies & Msp,Transport & Marketing Of Agricultural Produce

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with the agriculture bill

    The article analyses the issue of farmers opposition to the three agricultural bills.

    Context

    • Farmers have been protesting against the three bills related to agriculture.
    • These three Bills are-
    • 1) The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020
    • 2) The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.
    • 3) The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

    What are the aims of the bills?

    • The Bills aim to do away with government interference in agricultural trade by creating trading areas outside the structure of Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs).
    • One of the bills aims at removing restrictions of private stockholding (under Essential Commodities Act 1955) of agricultural produce.
    • One of the bills deals with the regulation of contract farming.

    Issues with the Bills

    • The government has failed to hold any discussion with the various stakeholders including farmers and middlemen.
    • The attempt to pass the Bills without proper consultation adds to the mistrust among various stakeholders including State governments.
    • Farmer organisations see these Bills as an attempt to weaken the APMCs and eventual withdrawal of the Minimum Support Prices (MSP).
    • Farmers in Punjab and Haryana have genuine concern about the continuance of the MSP-based public procurement given the large-scale procurement operations in these States.

    Understanding the role of APMC

    • APMCs do play an important role of price discovery essential for agricultural trade and production choices.
    • The middlemen are a part of the larger ecosystem of agricultural trade, with deep links between farmers and traders.
    • The preference for corporate interests at the cost of farmers’ interests and a lack of regulation in these non-APMC mandis are cause for concern.
    • To understand the role of APMC, consider the example of Bihar.
    • After Bihar abolished APMCs in 2006, farmers in Bihar on average received lower prices compared to the MSP for most crops.
    • Despite the shortcomings and regional variations, farmers still see the APMC mandis as essential to ensuring the survival of MSP regime.

    Conclusion

    The protests by farmers are essentially a reflection of the mistrust between farmers and the stated objective of these reforms.

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

    Attend Now

  • Goods and Services Tax (GST)

    On the GST issue, the Centre must lead

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: GST Council, GST compensation etc.

    Mains level: Paper 3- GST compensation issue

    The article deal with the issue of GST compensation and analyses the various estimates of revenue shortfall given by the Centre.

    Context

    • The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting has now been deferred to the first week of October due to sharp disagreement between the States and the Centre.

    Background of GST

    • The Centre had brought the States on board GST by promising higher revenue collection.
    • States were lured by the promise of 14% annual growth in GST revenue over the base year of 2015-16.
    • Any shortfall from this (for five years) was to be compensated by levying a cess on luxury and sin goods.

    What are the options given by the Centre

    •  The transfers due since April 2020 have been withheld.
    • In the last GST Council meeting held on August 27, the Centre gave the States two options.
    • First, they could borrow ₹97,000 crore (the shortfall in the GST revenue compensation) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under a special window at a low rate of interest.
    • Second, borrow ₹2.35-lakh crore (the total compensation shortfall) from the market with the RBI facilitating it.
    • The burden of repayment would be borne by the future collections from the compensation cess.
    • It was proposed that this cess which was to end in June 2022 could be extended to facilitate the repayment of the debt.

    Issues with the estimates

    • Given the uncertainty, how accuracy of the estimates of ₹97,000 crore and ₹2.35-lakh crore offered to the States is questionable.
    • When the Ministry of Finance is refusing to give a figure for growth in 2020-21, how such estimates are arrived at gains significance.

    Budgetary calculations

    • The Union Budget presented on February 1, 2020 assumed a nominal growth of 10%.
    • But optimistically, the Centre’s budgetary calculations will be off by at least 20%.
    • Revenue will fall by much more than 20%.
    •  So, income tax collection will also be short by much more than 20%.
    • The direct tax/GDP per cent may be expected to fall from 5.5% last year to less than 4% this fiscal.
    • Thus, at an optimistic guess, if the economy declines by only 10%, the total tax collection will be down by about ₹12-lakh crore in 2020-21.

    Conclusion

    As many predictions are that the economy will be down by much more than 10% used in the calculations above, the revenue shortfall is likely to be far greater. This points to the dire position of the Centre (and the States) and the inevitability of a large borrowing programme. Only the Centre is in a position to do such massive borrowing.

    Back2Basics: Two options for the GST compensation

    • Option 1 has a special window for states, coordinated by the Finance Ministry, to borrow the projected shortfall of Rs 97,000 crore only on account of GST implementation — and not the Covid-19 pandemic.
    • This amount can be fully repaid from the compensation cess fund, without being counted as states’ debt.
    • Option 2 takes into account the impact of the pandemic, proposing states to borrow the entire Rs 2.35 lakh crore and bearing the interest burden though principal will be repaid from the cess proceeds.
    • The GST shortfall amount (Rs 97,000 crore) will not be counted as states’ debt, while the rest of the amount of Rs 1.38 lakh crore will be counted in the books of the states.

    Source:

    https://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/gst-compensation-centre-gives-states-2-options-easier-terms-for-lower-borrowing-6575499/

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

    Attend Now

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Afghanistan

    Role for India in Afghan peace push

    op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood – Relations

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Afghan peace process and India's role

    The U.S. objectives

    • Following  4 were the states as objectives of the Afghan peace process.
    • 1) An end to violence by declaring a ceasefire.
    • 2) An intra-Afghan dialogue for a lasting peace.
    • 3) The Taliban cutting ties with terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda.
    • 4)  U.S. troop withdrawal.

    Evolving Indian stand in the peace process

    • India’s vision of a sovereign, united, stable, plural and democratic Afghanistan is one that is shared by a large constituency in Afghanistan, cutting across ethnic and provincial lines.
    • At Doha meeting, India’s External Affairs Ministerreiterated that the peace process must be “Afghan led, Afghan owned and Afghan controlled”.
    • But Indian policy has evolved from its earlier hands-off approach to the Taliban.
    • U.S. and Russian representatives suggested if India had concerns regarding anti-India activities of terrorist groups, it must engage directly with the Taliban. In other words.

    Limited interest of the major powers

    • Major powers have limited interests in the peace process.
    • The European Union has made it clear that its financial contribution will depend on the security environment and the human rights record.
    • China can always lean on Pakistan to preserve its security and connectivity interests.
    • For Russia, blocking the drug supply and keeping its southern periphery secure from extremist influences is key.
    • That is why no major power is taking ownership for the reconciliation talks, but merely content with being facilitators.

    Conclusion

    A more active engagement will enable India to work with like-minded forces in the region to ensure that the vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal does not lead to an unravelling of the gains registered during the last two decades.

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

    Attend Now