Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Cyber space, cyber sovereignty and its implications
Context
- A state’s desire to control ‘cyberspace’ within its borders is achieved by exercising what is called ‘cyber sovereignty’. While some countries such as the United States (US) support the free flow of information, others like China, by default, restrict the flow for its citizens, leading to the fragmentation of the internet.
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- A cyber threat or cyber security threat is defined as a malicious act intended to steal or damage data or disrupt the digital wellbeing and stability of an enterprise.
- Cyber threats include a wide range of attacks ranging from data breaches, computer viruses, denial of service, and numerous other attack vectors.
What is cyberspace?
- Defined by Cyber security expert Daniel Kuehl: cyberspace is a global domain within the information system whose distinctive and unique character is framed by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to create, store, modify, exchange, and exploit information via independent and interconnected networks using information-communication technologies.
- Traditionally three layers of cyberspace: Traditionally, cyberspace was understood only in three layers: the physical/hardware, neural/software, and data.
- Forth layer of social interaction and sovereignty: Alexander Klimburg, in his book The Darkening Web, introduced a fourth layer that deals with the social interaction among the three layers: “If cyberspace can be said to have a soul or mind, this is where it is. Establishing control over all the layers is necessary to build sovereignty in cyberspace.
What is Cyber sovereignty?
- Term coined by Bruce Schneir: One of the leading voices in internet governance, Bruce Schneier, has coined the term as the attempt of governments to take control over sections of the internet within their borders.
- It is about Internet governance: The term cyber sovereignty stems from internet governance and usually means the ability to create and implement rules in cyberspace through state governance.
- Cyber sovereignty does not necessarily mean governance by state: Cyber sovereignty does not necessarily have to mean governance by a state. It first and foremost refers to the ability to create and implement rules in cyberspace. Alternatively, one could say it refers to the authority to speak the law, i.e., having juris-diction, in cyberspace.
- Technology that drives policy decisions: In contrast to other technologies whose development is driven by policy, here it is technology which drives policy decisions. These characteristics make cyberspace governance complex and lead to confrontations among states and other stakeholders.
Whether states should be held accountable for cyber-attacks emanating from their territory?
- Sovereignty as defined by ICJ: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) defines sovereignty as that which confers rights upon states and imposes obligations on them. This implies that states must control their cyber infrastructure and prevent it from being knowingly or unknowingly used to harm other states and non-state actors.
- Who comes under the cyber sovereignty ambit: The state, or the citizens of the state, if involved in attacking other states or non-state actors’ cyber facilities, also come under the ambit of cyber sovereignty.
Implications of Cyber sovereignty
- Cyber sovereignty restricts the free flow of information: The internet was created to promote the free flow of information, but cyber sovereignty works the other way around. Restricting the flow of information can also put global businesses at risk due to the lack of interoperability it leads to.
- It may lead to data imperialism: Control over the data could lead to new forms of colonialism and imperialism, commonly referred to as ‘data colonisation’ and ‘data imperialism’ in the digital era. States and private players can overreach their powers and violate human rights through cyberspace surveillance, controlling information flow, and enforcing internet shutdowns.
- Implications from the fragmentation of the internet to violation of human rights: The implications are broad, impinging on citizens’ rights such as privacy, freedom of expression, access to information, press freedom, freedom of belief, non-discrimination and equality, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, due process and personal security.
- For instance: Access to geolocation data can give insights into people who participated in a protest. Further, based on a user’s online behaviour, it is possible to determine a person’s sexual orientation, political affiliation and religious beliefs.
Example to understand the Implication of cyber sovereignty
- In 2009, seeking justice for their co-workers whom the Han Chinese killed in a doll factory, Uighurs, a Muslim minority community in China, organised a protest using Facebook and Uighur-language blogs.
- Following this incident, Facebook and Twitter were blocked across the country, and the internet was shut down for ten months in the region.
- Following the incident, the Chinese government, with the help of the private sector, developed AI-enabled applications like the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (Ijop) to monitor the daily activities of Uighur Muslims. This app obtains information like skin colour, facial features, properties owned, payments, and personal relationships, and reports if there are any suspicious activities. An investigation is initiated if the systems flag any person. Data is gathered 24/7 to carry out mass surveillance.
Value addition notes: Consider these for Essays
- Unlike other spaces such as land, sea, air, and outer space, cyberspace was created by humans; therefore, complete control can be established over it.
- Countries have tried to frame policies and rules to regulate cyberspace by building the necessary infrastructure.
- This can be seen as either a defensive mechanism that states use to protect their own critical infrastructure or a framework adopted to exploit other states’ resources.
- It has led to a security dilemma and added fuel to the fire of great-power politics.
- Realising its importance, states have started to see cyberspace as equivalent to physical territory, and are building virtual walls to protect their ‘cyber territory’ with the help of various technologies.
Conclusion
- It is often said that information is wealth, competition has developed between states, and between state and non-state actors, to control and access this wealth. The dichotomy of states trying to protect the data generated in their territory by introducing data protection laws but, simultaneously, wanting to exploit other states’ data is adding to the complexity.
Mains question
Q. Technological advancements have made cyberspace an integral part of human lives. In this context, what do you understand by Cyber sovereignty. Discuss the implications of cyber sovereignty.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Indian handloom, Impact of colonial policies and the future of energy efficient cotton production
Context
- When we look back at Indian handlooms, what is certain is that the craft world has changed, not in the slow-paced gradual way of changes in the past, but much faster than before. India can be a world leader in the sustainable production of cotton textiles.
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- Supplier from the ancient times: The weavers of India have supplied the markets of the world with cotton cloth since at least the first century of the Common Era.
- Fine varieties of cotton were the source of wealth: In pre-industrial times, the many varieties of Indian cotton cloth bafta, mulmul, mashru, jamdani, moree, percale, nainsukh, chintz, etc were the source of India’s fabled wealth.
- Spun by hand: Until colonial times, the yarn for handloom weaving in India had been spun by hand.
- Invention of spinning machines: With the invention of spinning machinery in Britain and the import of machine-spun cotton yarn, this occupation vanished.
Impact of colonial policies on Indian handlooms
- Economic policies dictated by British: Since India was a British colony, the British dictated its economic policies.
- Raw material exported while machine made fabric imported: Machine-woven cotton fabrics began to be imported, while raw cotton was shipped out to supply British industry.
- Variety of cotton from India was not suitable for machinery, so they forced uniformity: Though Indian varieties of cotton produced the finest fabrics the world has yet seen, the famous Dhaka muslins, they were unsuited to the newly invented textile machinery, while American cotton varieties that have a longer, stronger staple, were more suited to machine processing. The machines needed a uniform kind of cotton, so the hundreds of varieties of Indian cotton which had been bred over centuries now had to become uniform. Diversity, until then valued, became a handicap.
- By 1947 uniform production established and variety lost: By 1947, mass production was well established, and India’s own spinning and weaving mills took over the role of Lancashire. American cotton varieties and their hybrids gradually replaced native ones, so now, native varieties grow only in a few pockets
What did this mean for Indian cotton farmers?
- New practices changed the nature of production from sustainable to commercial: Cotton in India is grown largely by small farmers, and the new practices have changed the nature of farm practices from sustainable, family-based agriculture to intensive commercial farming with severe and tragic consequences.
- Seeds from companies were expensive: Seeds come from large multinationals, rather than the farmer’s own stock, and are expensive.
- Desi varieties of seeds were rainfed lost rapidly: While the desi varieties were rain-fed, the American varieties need irrigation, which increases humidity. Humidity encourages pests and fungi.
- Cost of cultivation increased with use of fertilizers: A cocktail of chemicals fertiliser, pesticide and fungicide is used which adds to the cost of cultivation, but does not guarantee a good harvest.
- Debt increased farmers misery: The farmer runs up huge debts hoping for a good crop, but India’s weather is variable, groundwater is fast depleting. If the crop fails, the risks are entirely the farmer’s. The distress of the cotton farmer has even led to suicides. The introduction of genetically-modified seeds has led to more severe problems.
Relationship between energy shift and the cotton production
- Renewable energy in 21st century: Just as energy from fossil fuels ushered in the era of mass production in the 19th century, it will be clean, renewable energy that will take the small-scale environmental Indian industries to the top of the heap in the 21st century.
- Emphasis for low energy manufacturing: As fossil fuels deplete, earlier notions of efficiency will change, and low-energy manufacturing processes will gain value.
- Handwoven fabrics will gain importance again: At the same time, markets are becoming saturated with look-alike products from factory-style mass production, and there are more customers for the individualised products dispersed production can offer. Small-batch handwoven fabrics will become desirable in the changing markets.
Interesting: Malkha a sustainable fabric
- Malkha is pure cotton cloth made directly from raw cotton in the village close to cotton fields and combines traditional Indian principles of cloth making with modern small-scale technology.
- Malkha is energy efficient, avoids baling and unbaling of cotton by heavy machinery and unnecessary transport.
- It provides an alternative to the mass production of cotton yarn.
- Malkha has also added natural dyeing of yarn to make its fabrics even more sustainable.
Conclusion
- The world is looking for green industries. Over the next 25 years, as independent India turns 100, handloom weaving located close to cotton fields can make it a world leader in sustainable production.
Mains question
Q. The weavers of India have supplied the markets of the world with cotton cloth since at least the first century of the Common Era. In this context Discuss the impact of British policies on Indian handloom.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: India's manufacturing sector and role of IAS officers
Context
- The Make in India and Ease of Doing Business policies were framed because Prime Minister Narendra Modi correctly believed that the problems of poverty and unemployment could only be solved by the rapid growth of the manufacturing sector. Despite these efforts, manufacturing has till now not shown any significant increase in its growth. Investments in the sector remain inadequate.
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- Development strategies and failures: The development of strategies and plans for implementation and their execution is done by individuals. Repeated failures in this area point to the necessity of identifying the root causes for why existing personnel charged with policy execution have been failing.
- Reasons could be: The reasons could be inadequate knowledge and skills, lack of motivation, environmental constraints or weak supervision and monitoring.
- Vision by political leaderships, implementation by IAS officers: While the political leadership lays down the vision, the responsibilities for translating these into ground realities are that of IAS officers.
IAS officers in manufacturing
- IAS officers ensures adequate skills and training: Most of the senior posts in the secretariats and districts are held by officers from the IAS. They are responsible for ensuring that subordinate civil servants are adequately trained and skilled, motivated and guided to deliver good outcomes.
- Frame rules for implementation: They create the framework of rules that constitute the environment for implementation. Therefore, if policies are to be more effectively implemented, IAS officers need to be better equipped.
How should be the role of IAS officers in manufacturing?
- Officers should have adequate knowledge: Achieving global levels of cost and quality competitiveness in the sector requires that officers working in areas relevant to policy-making in the central and state governments understand how laws, regulations and procedures impact the competitiveness of industry.
- They must know the ways of cost-efficient manufacturing: They should specifically be aware of the various ways in which these add to or reduce the costs of manufacturing.
- They should ensure the demand and investment strategy: They need to appreciate the importance of demand creation for enabling industry to achieve economies of scale and how the stability of policies is required for companies to make long-term investments.
What needs to be done?
- Need to understand the resources, demand and growth: The importance of profits and the generation of internal resources for growth has to be understood.
- Joint efforts and trust are required: This is only possible if the concerned civil servants in the ministries have good domain knowledge of the manufacturing sector and appreciate that government and entrepreneurs have to work jointly and trust each other.
Can IAS officers do this work? What are the challenges?
- Gap in policies and implementation: While policies are largely made in Delhi, much of the implementation is done in states.
- More trust on public sector while a distrust on private sector: Effective implementation has become complex because of our past history of only trusting the public sector and distrusting the private sector.
- Even laws and procedures are based on suspicion: Many of the laws and procedures were based on the suspicion of private-sector industrialists.
- Legacy of distrust on civil servants: Equally, the system of checks and balances, inherited from the British, is based on a distrust of civil servants and leads to implementers preferring procedures and correct paperwork over producing results.
- Civil servants are not private sector friendly in general: Civil servants are generally not private sector friendly when dealing with issues that have financial implications. This results in long delays, higher costs and loss of competitiveness.
How to equip IAS officers to become more effective in dealing with the manufacturing sector?
- Bringing in the best global practices: We need to reform our system of human resource development and bring it in line with the best global practices.
- Dedicated wing to be created: A wing be created in the Department of Personnel & Training, and its counterparts in the states. This should be manned by professionals in human resource development whose function would be to select officers on the basis of aptitude from the IAS and other services, and train them to frame and implement policies relating to manufacturing and industrial development.
- Experience must be considered: The selection of officers could be made after they have completed around 10 years of service. Thereafter, selected officers would need to be trained and given postings that would enable them to gain more knowledge and experience. This could include secondment to selected private companies so that the officers could get actual working experience. They would then be better able to understand the finer points of competing in the marketplace.
- Periodic Capability evaluation should be made: Officers so trained should not be moved to other unrelated areas of work. Periodic evaluations could be made, again by professionals, to identify those capable of moving to the highest levels for making policies and strategies.
The Maruti case study
- A system that exists in Japan, and was implemented in Maruti, was to de-link salary scales from job responsibilities.
- The most suitable person for a job is selected and his pay did not change upon assuming higher responsibilities, though his designation changed.
Conclusion
- IAS officers can deliver results if they are motivated, trained and allowed to work in the area of their expertise. The recruitment system for the higher civil services ensures high-quality entrants. However, that does not automatically mean good results when posted in jobs that require specialized knowledge and experience. They need to be properly equipped to work in the manufacturing sector.
Mains Question
Q. Despite of the efforts to boost manufacturing sector, it has till now not shown any significant increase in its growth. In this context discuss the role of IAS officers and suggest what can be done to improve their role in manufacturing sector.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: What is Chatbot and ChatGPT?
Mains level: Chatbot and ChatGPT, applications, advantages and limitations
Context
- Many of us are familiar with the concept of what a “chatbot” is and what it is supposed to do. But this year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT turned a simple experience into something entirely different. ChatGPT is being seen as a path-breaking example of an AI chatbot and what the technology could achieve when applied at scale.
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Background
- ChatGPT by OpenAI: Artificial Intelligence (AI) research company OpenAI on recently announced ChatGPT, a prototype dialogue-based AI chatbot capable of understanding natural language and responding in natural language.
- Will be able to implement in softwares soon: So far, OpenAI has only opened up the bot for evaluation and beta testing but API access is expected to follow next year. With API access, developers will be able to implement ChatGPT into their own software.
- Remarkable abilities: But even under its beta testing phase, ChatGPT’s abilities are already quite remarkable. Aside from amusing responses like the pumpkin one above, people are already finding real-world applications and use cases for the bot.
- A chatbot (coined from the term “chat robot”) is a computer program that simulates human conversation either by voice or text communication, and is designed to help solve a problem.
- Organizations use chatbots to engage with customers alongside the classic customer service channels like phone, email, and social media.
What is ChatGPT?
- Simple definition: ChatGPT is a chatbot built on a large-scale transformer-based language model that is trained on a diverse dataset of text and is capable of generating human-like responses to prompts.
- A human like language model: It is based on GPT-3.5, a language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text.
- It is more engaging with details: However, while the older GPT-3 model only took text prompts and tried to continue on that with its own generated text, ChatGPT is more engaging. It’s much better at generating detailed text and can even come up with poems.
- Keeps the memory of the conversations: Another unique characteristic is memory. The bot can remember earlier comments in a conversation and recount them to the user.
- Human- like resemblance: A conversation with ChatGPT is like talking to a computer, a smart one, which appears to have some semblance of human-like intelligence.
The Question arises: will AI replace all of our daily writing?
- ChatGPT is not entirely accurate: It is not entirely accurate, something even OpenAI has admitted. It is also evident that some of the essays written by ChatGPT lack the depth that a real human expert might showcase when writing on the same subject.
- ChatGPT lacks depth like human mind: It doesn’t quite have the nuance that a human would often be able to provide. For example, when asked ChatGPT how one should cope with a cancer diagnosis. The responses were kind but generic. The type of responses you would find in any general self-help guide.
- It lacks same experiences as humans: AI has a long way to go. After all, it doesn’t have the same experiences as a human.
- ChatGPT doent excel in code: ChatGPT is writing basic code. As several reports have shown, ChatGPT doesn’t quite excel at this yet. But a future where basic code is written using AI doesn’t seem so incredible right now.
Limitations of ChatGPT
- ChatGPT is still prone to Misinformation: Despite of abilities of the bot there are some limitations. ChatGPT is still prone to misinformation and biases, which is something that plagued previous versions of GPT as well. The model can give incorrect answers to, say, algebraic problems.
- ChatGPT can write incorrect answers: OpenAI understands some flaws and has noted them down on its announcement blog that “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.
Conclusion
- OpenAI’s ChatGPT turned that simple experience into something entirely different. ChatGPT is a path-breaking example of an AI chatbot and what the technology could achieve when applied at scale. Limitations aside, ChatGPT still makes for a fun little bot to interact with. However, there are some challenges that needs to be addressed before it becomes a unavoidable part of human life.
Manis question
Q. What is ChatGPT? Discuss why it is seen as pathbreaking example of an AI chatbot and the limitations?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nuralink
Mains level: Nuralink and its applications and testing issues
Context
- Elon Musk’s medical company, Neuralink, has been accused of causing needless suffering and death to around 1,500 animals in just short few years. Sources indicate that animal testing is proceeding too swiftly, which results in unnecessary suffering and death for the animals.
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What Is Neuralink?
- A device to be inserted in brain: Neuralink is a gadget that will be surgically inserted into the brain using robotics. In this procedure, a chipset called the link is implanted in the skull.
- Insulated wires connected to electrodes: It has a number of insulated wires connected from the electrodes that are used in the process.
- Can be operated by smartphones: This device can then be used to operate smartphones and computers without having to touch it.
- Neurons of the Brain: The brain consists of neurons that transmit signals to cells in the body including muscle, nerve, gland and other neuron cells.
- Functions of each part of the brain: Every neuron is made up of three parts called the dendrite, the soma (cell body) and the axon. Each of this part has its own function. The dendrite receives the signals. The soma processes these signals. The axon then transmits the signals to the other cells.
- Neurotansmitters: The neurons are connected to one another by the synapses which release neurotransmitters. These chemical substances are then sent to another neuron cell’s dendrite causing the flow of current across the neurons.
How Does Neuralink Work?
- Electrodes can read electric signals: The electrodes that are part of the Neuralink will read electrical signals that are produced by several neurons in the brain. The signals are then outputted in form of an action or movement.
- Implanted directly in the brain: According to the company’s website, the device is implanted directly in the brain because placing it outside the head will not detect the signals produced by the brain accurately
What Does Neuralink Do?
- To operate encephalopathy: Neuralink can be used to operate encephalopathy.
- People with paralysis can be operated: It can also be used as a connection between the human brain and technology. This means that people with paralysis can easily operate their phones and computer directly with their brain.
- It will help people to communicate: Its main purpose is to help people to communicate through text or voice messages.
- Wide applications: Neuralink can also be utilised to draw pictures, take photographs and do other activities.appliactions
Conclusion
- Though the Neuralink innovation pushing the boundaries of neural engineering, cruelty over the animals cannot be ignored.
Mains question
Q. What is Neuralink? What is the science behind the human brain and what the neuralink will do?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Russia Ukraine war, India-Russia relations
Context
- Russia marks two anniversaries the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Union and the 31st anniversary of its dissolution. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917, the Soviet Union was proclaimed on December 30, 1922. Until its dissolution on December 26, 1991.
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- Special Strategic Partner: Vladimir Putin’s Russia continues to be valued as the heir to the Soviet Union and as a special strategic partner.
- Ukraine war has not affected the ties: Putin’s aggression against Ukraine and his brutal bombing of its civilian population, which Moscow claims is an integral part of Russia, has hardly made a dent in the way the Indian political classes think about the crisis.
- Russia as anti-imperialist: On the left and centre of the Indian political spectrum, the Soviet Union has been viewed purely through the ideological lens of progressive politics nationalist, internationalist, communist and anti-imperialist. That lens, however, is detached from the history of Russia and the continuing struggles for its political soul.
- Russia as best friend forever: Within the strategic community, the conviction that Russia is India’s “best friend forever” leaves little room for a nuanced view of Russia’s domestic and international politics.
Understanding Russia’s behaviour through Russian History
- The Bolshevik Revolution: It is initially sought to destroy the Russian Orthodox Church, eventually leveraged it in the deification of the Soviet state and lent a religious colour to the claim of Russian exceptionalism.
- Alliance with orthodoxy: Putin has taken the alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church to a higher level. For the Russian nationalists today, the effort to take back Ukraine is a “holy war”.
- Limited sovereignty to other communist state: After the Second World War, Soviet Russia insisted that fellow communist states had only “limited sovereignty” and Moscow had the right to intervene to keep them on the straight and narrow path of socialism and prevent their destabilisation. The military invasions in Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), and Afghanistan (1979) were motivated by this impulse.
- Russia has not given up Imperialist tradition: In claiming that Ukraine has no sovereignty of its own, Putin is merely following that imperial tradition as well as the conviction that Ukraine, Belarus and Russian-speaking people everywhere are part of the “Russkiy Mir” or the “Russian world”.
- Mao’s characterization of Russia: After he broke from the Russian communists, Mao began to characterise Russia as an “imperial power”. Mao had not forgotten the persistent tension between the Chinese and Russian empires.
Analyzing Russia’s internal politics
- Weak federalism by Lenin: The founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin warned against the dangers of “great Russian chauvinism”. He insisted on structuring a federal polity with the right of various nationalities to secede.
- Strong soviet by Stalin: Stalin, however, turned Russian federalism into a hollow shell and erased the difference between the “Soviet Union” and “Soviet Russia”.
- Putin refuse to recognize Ukraine: Putin denounced Lenin for giving a separate identity to Ukraine. “Modern Ukraine”, Putin said, “can with good reason be called ‘Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s Ukraine’.”
- Stalling the democratic process: The enduring autocratic impulse in Moscow that is rooted in the stalled democratic revolution. Traditionally, the Russian fear of disorder has left the population to put great faith in strong leaders.
- Centralising tendency: The frequent but unsuccessful efforts at political liberalisation have left a fertile ground in Russia for centralising power under leaders like Putin and increasing the chances of grave miscalculation.
What should be the India’s approach towards Russia?
- Not directly criticize Russia: Although it has been reluctant to directly criticise Russian aggression, official India is not blind to the fact that Putin’s “special military operation” has gone horribly wrong.
- Taking note of changing world order: India will inevitably find ways to adjust to the tectonic shifts in the world order triggered by Putin’s misadventure.
- Learning from Putin’s mistake: The Indian political and strategic communities must come to terms with the many complex factors that have contributed to Putin’s egregious errors in Ukraine.
Conclusion
- To understand how the war in Ukraine might play out and its longer-term consequences for India, India’s discourse must pay greater attention to the turbulent history of Russia and its troubled relations with its Central European neighbours.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Research and development and Research Intensity
Context
- US, has retained its global leadership for almost a century since World War I thanks to the culture of innovation backed by a solid base of research and development (R&D). China is challenging the leadership of US based on technology and innovation. If India wants to be a Vishwa guru it must invest in R&D.
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Innovation and missing R&D Investment
- Engine of growth: Innovation is rightly recognized as an engine for economic growth.
- Atal innovation Mission: In 2016, the government launched the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) to create an ecosystem to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
- Actual spending is less: All these are steps in the right direction, but the foundation of all this lies in how much India actually spends on R&D, both in absolute terms as well as a percentage of its GDP, in relation to other G20 countries.
- Sustainable Target: SDG Target 9.5 calls upon nations to encourage innovation and substantially increase the numbers of researchers as well as public and private spending on R&D. Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) is the proposed aggregate to quantify a country’s commitment to R&D.
What is the scenario of Global Investment in R&D?
- Institute for Statistics (UIS): According to UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics (UIS) latest report, the G20 nations accounted for 90.6 per cent of global GERD (current, PPP$) in 2018.
- Increased spending on R&D: Global R&D expenditure has reached a record high of about 2.2 trillion current PPP$ (2018), while Research Intensity (R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP) has gradually increased from 1.43 per cent in 1998 to 1.72 per cent in 2018.
- Investment in PPP terms is inaccurate: Though looking at spending in PPP terms is a reasonable metric for welfare measurement in the economy, when it comes to technological prowess in high-end activities of R&D, it all boils down to measuring hard currency in US dollars.
- G20 leader in investment: The G20 countries, accounting for 86.2 per cent of the global GDP and over 60 per cent of the global population in 2021, are the leaders in every way.
- USA spends the Highest: The US leads the G20 by spending $581.6 billion on R&D followed by the European Union ($323 billion), and China ($297.3 billion) in 2018.
- India spends negligible amount: India lags way behind with a paltry R&D expenditure of only $17.6 billion in 2018. In terms of their relative shares in G20 R&D expenditure, the US is way ahead with 36 per cent, followed by the EU (20 per cent), and China (18 per cent). India’s share is less than 1 per cent of G20 R&D expenditure in dollar terms.
Linkages between Research Intensity and Expenditure on R&D
- Percentage to GDP: While the absolute expenditure on R&D provides a sense of scale, their percentage to the respective GDP provides the research intensity (RI).
- South Korea Highest RI: It is interesting to note that in 2018 for which the latest information is available, South Korea has the highest RI at 4.43 per cent, followed by Japan (3.21 per cent), Germany (3.09 per cent), the US (2.83 per cent), France (2.19 per cent), China (2.14 per cent) and EU (2.02 per cent). India is ranked 17th in the G20, with a RI of 0.65 per cent (see infographics).
- Example of Israel: One of the non-G20 countries is Israel, which, while having an R&D expenditure of just $18.6 billion, a population of only 9.3 million and a per capita income of around $51,430, has the highest RI of over 5 per cent. No wonder, Israel is known as a land of innovations, be it in defence or agriculture.
What India can learn from Israel?
- Innovation growth and competition: The innovation system in Israel is a fundamental driver of its economic growth and competitiveness.
- Active role of government: The government has played an important role in financing innovation, particularly in SMEs, and in providing well-functioning frameworks for innovation, such as venture capital (VC), incubators, strong science-industry links, and high-quality university education.
- India can emulate Israel: Israel builds a strong case to show that despite being a smaller nation, sustainable growth can be achieved by prioritising investments in R&D. A lesson India can learn.
Mains Question
Q. What is difference between investment in R&D and research intensity? What is the missing part in India’s R&D and innovation ecosystem?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: India-EU FTA
Context
- The third round of negotiations of the India-European Union (EU) free trade agreement concluded recently. The two sides are also negotiating an investment protection agreement (IPA), which will contain investment protection standards and an independent mechanism to settle disputes between investors and states under international law.
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Why EU is seeking Investor Protection Agreement?
- Regulatory troubles in India: Notwithstanding the laudable intent of the government to welcome them, foreign investors in India have often got into numerous regulatory troubles with the state.
- Investors have sued India: Several foreign corporations like Vodafone, Cairn Energy, Nissan, White Industries, Telenor, Nokia, Vedanta have sued India to enforce the rights guaranteed to them in bilateral investment treaties (BITs). This is the main motivation behind the EU seeking an IPA with India.
- India’s past of unilaterally changing the laws: EU investors can rely on Indian law for protection. But Indian law can be unilaterally changed to the detriment of the investor.
- Slow Judicial process: The Indian judiciary is agonisingly slow in resolving disputes. Thus, the longing for protection under international law.
- Non-justiciable tax regulations: India wants to push taxation measures outside the scope of the treaty by making tax-related regulatory measures non-justiciable. The EU has difficulty accepting this proposition given the recent history of India’s tax-related investment disputes with Vodafone, Cairn Energy, and Nissan.
- Two tier court system: The EU’s investment proposal to India talks of creating a two-tier court-like system with an appellate mechanism and tenured judges to resolve treaty disputes between investors and the state.
- EU’s proposal of MIC: This proposal is connected to the EU’s stand internationally for creating a multilateral investment court (MIC), negotiations for which are going on at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The MIC is aimed at overcoming the weaknesses of the current arbitration-based system of settling investor-state disputes.
- Lack of clarity from India’s side: India’s position on creating an investment-court-like system is unknown. India hasn’t publicly contributed to the ongoing negotiations at UNCITRAL towards establishing a MIC.
What is the issue of MFN and FET?
- EU wants the MFN status: The EU’s investment proposal contains a most favoured nation (MFN) provision to ensure that EU investors do not face discrimination vis-à-vis other foreign investors.
- India don’t want to include MFN: On the other hand, India’s position is not to include the MFN provision in its investment treaties because of the apprehension that foreign investors will use the MFN clause to indulge in disruptive treaty shopping. The solution to such disruptive treaty shopping is to negotiate for a qualified MFN provision and not exclude it altogether.
- Fair equitable treatment: EU investment proposal contains what is known as a fair and equitable treatment (FET) provision, which is missing in the Indian 2016 Model BIT.
- Making the state liable: The FET provision protects foreign investors, for example, by making the states liable if it goes back on the specific assurances made to an investor to induce investments on which the investor relied while making the investment.
Why IPA is need of the hour?
- FDI is stagnant: Overall FDI to India has stagnated for the past decade at around 2 per cent of the GDP. In the case of the EU, while its share in foreign investment stock in India increased from €63.7 billion in 2017 to €87.3 billion in 2020, this is way below the EU foreign investment stocks in China (€201.2 billion) or Brazil (€263.4 billion).
- Negative Impact of BIT terminations: Recent research shows that India’s decision to unilaterally terminate BITs has negatively impacted FDI inflows to India.
- IPA needed to attract FDI: India needs the IPA with the EU to attract FDI for achieving the aspirational milestone of becoming a $10-trillion economy by 2030.
Conclusion
- India needs to put its own house in order. India should review the 2016 Model BIT, as has also been recommended by the Parliament’s standing committee on external affairs.
Mains Question
Q. What is the investor protection scheme and why EU wants to include IPA in Free Trade Agreement with India? what are the hurdles in FTA between EU and India?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Linking PHC with UHC, India's G20 presidency and healthcare agenda
Context
- Health needs to be a central agenda for the G20 2023. It has been one of the priority areas for G20 deliberations since 2017, when the first meet of health ministers of G20 countries was organised by the German presidency. The G20 now has health finance in its financial stream and health systems development in the Sherpa stream.
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Background: Prioritizing Health
- An annual G20 meeting of health ministers and a joint health and finance task force reflects the seriousness the subject has gained.
- The Berlin Declaration 2017 of the G20 health ministers provided a composite approach focusing on pandemic preparedness, health system strengthening and tackling antimicrobial resistance.
- The Covid-19 pandemic gave added urgency to pandemic preparedness and the Indonesian presidency in 2022 made it the major focus. The Indian presidency needs to advance these agendas.
Global community engagement to strengthen Health systems
- Universal Health Coverage (UHC): The concept of UHC was born in the 2000s to prevent catastrophic medical expenditures due to secondary and tertiary level hospital services by universalizing health insurance coverage.
- UHC as a strategy to ensure healthcare for all: The UHC has been the big global approach for health systems strengthening since 2010, also adopted in 2015 as the strategy for Sustainable Development Goal-3 on ensuring healthcare for all at all ages.
- Limited impact of UHC: However, the limited impact of this narrow strategy was soon evident, with expenditures on outdoor services becoming catastrophic for poor households and preventing access to necessary healthcare and medicines, while many unnecessary/irrational medical interventions were being undertaken.
What are the new approaches developed to strengthen healthcare system?
- Highlighted the need to prioritise primary healthcare (PHC): In 2018, the Astana Conference organised by WHO and UNICEF put out a declaration stating that primary healthcare (PHC) is essential for fulfilling the UHC objectives.
- Combined UHC- PHC approach: In 2019, the UN General Assembly adopted the combined UHC-PHC approach as a political declaration.
- World bank report on benefits of PHC services during pandemic: The World Bank published a report in 2021, “Walking the Talk: Reimagining Primary Health Care After COVID-19”. The dominant hospital-centred medical system is becoming unaffordable even for the high-income countries, as apparent during the 2008 recession and subsequently.
What is PHC-with-UHC approach?
- It means strengthening primary level care linked to non-medical preventive action (food security and safety, safe water and air, healthy workspaces, and so on)
- It works through whole-of-society and whole-of-government approaches, and extending the “PHC principles” to secondary and tertiary care services.
- This could be the most cost-effective systems design the comprehensive game changer that global health care requires.
What is to be strengthened, what initiatives can be applied and how?
- Making health central to development in all sectors: Health in all policies, one health (linking animal and human health for tackling antimicrobial resistance and zoonotic diseases), planetary health, pandemic preparedness.
- Health systems strengthening: Designing PHC-with-UHC for diverse contexts. Conceptualised as a continuum of care from self-care in households to community services, to primary level para-medical services and first contact with a doctor, services provided as close to homes as possible, affordable and easily deliverable.
- Appropriate technologies to be adopted as a norm: By strengthening health technology assessment, ethics of healthcare, equitable access to pharmaceutical products and vaccines, integrative health systems using plural knowledge systems rationally.
- Health and healthcare from the perspective of the marginalised: Gendered health care needs, Health care of indigenous peoples globally, occupational health, mental health and wellbeing, healthy ageing.
- Easy access to health knowledge for all: decolonization and democratization of health knowledge, with interests and perspectives of low-middle-income countries (LMICs), prevention and patient-centred healthcare.
- India has several pioneering initiatives that can contribute to the PHC-with-UHC discussion:
- National Health mission and dedicated health facilities: Lessons from the National Health Mission for strengthening public health delivery; the HIV-control programme’s successful involvement of affected persons/communities and a complex well-managed service structure.
- Democratized health knowledge: Pluralism of health knowledge systems, each independently supported within the national health system.
- Certified Health personnel: Health personnel such as the ASHAs, mid-level health providers and wellness centres, traditional community healthcare providers with voluntary quality certification;
- R&D and widely acknowledged pharmaceutical capacity: Research designed for validation of traditional systems; pharmaceutical and vaccines production capacity;
- Digital health as an example: Developments in digital health; social insurance schemes and people’s hospital models by civil society.
Conclusion
- What is required is the drafting of PHC-with-UHC (a PHC 2.0) with a broad global consensus and commitment to a more sustainable and people-empowering health system. Pursuing such an agenda would involve much dialogue within countries, regions and globally. India should use its presidency to draft a model policy focusing on primary healthcare that commits to a universal, affordable, inclusive and just healthcare system
Mains Question
Q. What is Primary HealthCare and Universal healthcare integrated approach? What steps are necessary to further strengthen sustainable healthcare system? Discuss how India can contribute to it under its G20 presidency?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Appointment of judges of SC and HC's
Mains level: Issues with the appointment of judges of SC and HC's and judicial reforms
Context
- Recently, there has been confrontation between the Centre and judiciary on the interpretation of Article 124 (2) and 217 (1) of the Constitution.
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Provisions related to the appointment of judges to the supreme court and high court
- Article 124 (2): It highlights that every judge of the Supreme Court will be appointed by the president after consultation with such of the judges (in particular, the chief justice) of the Supreme Court and of the high courts in the states as necessary.
- Article 217 (1): Similarly, for high courts, Article 217 (1) highlights that every judge of a high court will be appointed by the president after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the governor of the state, and the chief justice of the high court.
- Judicial independence and Collegium system: Judicial interpretation in SP Gupta vs Union of India (1981), The Supreme Court Advocates-on Record Association vs Union of India (Second Judges case) (1993) and Article 143(1) vs Unknown (Third Judges Opinion) (1998) has further evolved the principle of judicial independence and led to a collegium system for recommending judges.
- Role of central government: Currently, the Centre can accept or reject recommendations made by the collegium system however, if a recommendation was reiterated, the government was obliged to accept it.
- More recently established consensus has given way to a stalemate, as the Centre stalls recommendations reiterated by the Collegium.
- The Supreme Court pulled up the government for not following timelines laid down in the Second Judges Case.
- The Standing Parliamentary Committee on Law and Personnel has also highlighted its disagreement with the Department of Justice that the time for filling vacancies cannot be indicated.
What will be the impact of this tussle?
- Decline in the capacity of India’s judicial system: The net effect of this historic tussle between the independent judiciary and overweening Centre has been a decline in the capacity of India’s judicial system
- Vacancies in higher judiciary: There were approximately three vacancies (of 34) in the Supreme Court, along with about 381 (of 1,108) vacancies for judges in the high courts.
- In lower judiciary: The lower judiciary had about 5,342 (of 24,631) seats vacant, accounting for 20 per cent of its capacity.
- Impact on judicial efficiency: Such vacancies, particularly in the high courts of Bombay, Punjab & Haryana, Calcutta, Patna and Rajasthan are bound to have an impact on judicial efficiency (with about four crore cases pending, as of August 2022)
A study: Process of appointment of judges in other countries and by political institutions
- In Italy: Here, appointments to the Constitutional Court are made by the president, the legislature and the Supreme Court, with each entity allowed to nominate five judges.
- In US: Supreme Court justices are nominated (for life) by the president and then approved by Senate via a majority vote. Whereas, the state governor appoints state judges based on recommendations provided by a merit commission.
- In Germany: The German Constitutional Court is appointed by the Parliament (each House gets four appointments in each of the Court Senates) with a supermajority vote (2/3). Naturally, this can lead to a partisan judiciary.
- In Iraq: All judges are graduates of a Judicial Institute, with all applicants undergoing written and oral tests, along with an interview with a panel of judges.
- In Japan: The Supreme Court Secretariat controls lower-level judicial appointments, along with their training and promotions.
- Judicial elections to enhance the accountability of judiciary: Judicial elections have also been utilised to enhance the accountability of the judiciary a variety of states in the US using elections for judicial appointments to the State Supreme Courts.
- Judicial councils: Other countries have experimented with judicial councils (often comprising of existing judges, representatives of the Ministry of Justice, members of the bar association, laymen etc)
Appointments through Judicial Commission
- Centres push Judicial Commission: for Recently, the Centre pushed for judicial appointments to be conducted via a Judicial Commission (National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014).
- Supreme court says collegium system open to greater transparency: The Supreme Court struck down the NJAC Act (2014) with a 4:1 majority, while highlighting that it was open to greater transparency in the collegium system in particular, making the collegium more transparent, fixing eligibility criteria for appointing judges and debating whether an empowered secretariat was required to appoint judges.
In this scenario what are suggested reforms?
- Empower secretariat to select and recommend candidates: The Collegium system can continue; however, a secretariat may be empowered to select and recommend candidates, with the Executive continuing to hold power to appoint judges.
- Greater representation of our society in the judiciary: The secretariat could be staffed with current judges, members of the bar association, representatives of the law ministry and laymen and should push for greater representation of our society in the judiciary. There were only three women and two SC judges in the Supreme Court.
- New Court of appeal: Beyond judicial appointments, there is a clear need for having a new Court of Appeal (refer PIL by V Vasanthakumar). The Supreme Court was never intended to be a regular court of appeal against orders in high courts (Bihar Legal Society vs Chief Justice of India, 1986) the Supreme Court should not be hearing bail applications.
- Federal court of Appeal: Instead, as recommended by the Law Commission, we need to have a Federal Court of Appeal, with branches in major metros.
- Transform Supreme court into constitutional court: The Supreme Court should be transformed into a Constitutional Court (via a constitutional amendment) doing this would mean fewer cases (about 50, anecdotally) being kept pending at the highest level.
- Defined retirement age for all judges: There need a push for a defined retirement age, say 65, for all judges, whether at a high court or Supreme Court level post retirement, there should also be a mandatory cooling off period for judges to be nominated to roles in government.
Conclusion
- Judicial independence continues to be important for the health of India’s democracy. A credible and impartial system of appointing judges is necessary to achieve judicial independence. Any appointment must ensure judicial accountability, fostering a judiciary which, at an individual and systemic level, is independent from other branches of government.
Mains Question
Q. What is the process of appointment of Supreme Court and High Court Judges? What is the Government’s position on the appointment of judges? What measures are suggested for judicial appointments?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Context
- Among the various disadvantages we poorly equipped to support people with disabilities about access to parliament. It is time to make the physical and digital interface of parliament and other buildings more disabled-friendly.
What are the common suggestions about disabled friendly parliament?
- Accessibility Committee: To attend to the access needs of the disabled.
- Providing sign language: For interpretation for Parliamentary proceedings.
- Audit of website: Ordering an accessibility audit of Parliament’s websites.
- Disable friendly facilities: In December 2015, the Government of India launched the Accessible India Campaign (AIC) to make the built environment, ICT ecosystem and transport facilities more disabled-friendly.
- Lack of enforcement: A strong enforcement mechanism is unfortunately absent in the AIC, led by people with disabilities and accessibility professionals, to ensure that ambitious milestones are set and pursued to their meaningful conclusion.
Recommendations of report by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy
- Make every building accessible: A report by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, titled “Beyond Reasonable Accommodation” points out, the requirement to make every new building accessible before it is granted an Occupancy Certificate.
- Integration of laws: The relevant provisions of the Harmonised Guidelines and Standards for Universal Accessibility in India, 2021 must be integrated into local bye-laws and state planning laws.
- Sensitivity about compliance: Municipal authorities must have the know-how and sensitivity to gauge compliance with the norms to make the built environment accessible and access to competent accessibility professionals who can provide appropriate inputs at every stage.
- Professions to enforce compliance: The list of empanelled professionals maintained by municipal authorities must also consist of accessibility professionals, and this requirement must be codified in model building bye-laws and the National Building Code.
What parliament can do?
- Accessibility committee: Parliament must set up an accessibility committee urgently that must be tasked with delivering recommendations in a time-bound fashion on making every aspect of the Parliamentary process more disabled-friendly.
- Taking cue from supreme court: The constitution of an Accessibility Committee by the Supreme Court recently may be a good reference point for Parliament.
What can centre and states do?
- Accessibility criteria in procurement: Central and state level procurement laws and policies must incorporate accessibility criteria in public procurement of physical, digital and transport infrastructure.
- Accessible tenders and documents: These must be replicated in agreements between procurement agencies and bidders/contractors. In addition, tender documents must set out applicable accessibility standards.
Conclusion
- Disable people suffers from structural disadvantage at every stage of governance including building infrastructure. Parliament should start from itself to give larger message of about sensitivity towards disabled friendly buildings.
Mains Question
Q. Explain the limitations of accessible India campaign? Suggest the way towards more disable friendly buildings in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: India-China Border issues, friction points
Context
- A week after the clash in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, convening of the 17th round of India-China corps commander-level talks at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point in eastern Ladakh is a positive development. But unfortunately, it does not inspire confidence about Chinese intentions vis a vis the Line of Actual Control.
- Disengagement at Gogra Hot springs in last round of talks: The last round of talks was held in July, and in September, the government announced that the two sides had finished disengaging at Gogra Hot Springs, as had been agreed in the 16th round.
- Beijing reluctant for further rounds of talks: Beijing appeared reluctant to accede to Delhi’s push for another round,
- No return to the status quo: China signals that there is nothing more to discuss about the situation in eastern Ladakh, and certainly not a return to the status quo that existed before its incursions in April-May 2020.
What is outcome of the latest round of talks and the current status?
- No mutually acceptable resolution on remaining issues: A joint statement that the two sides agreed to keep talking through military and diplomatic channels toward a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest suggests that there was no outcome from this round. It is also not clear if the remaining issues have been agreed upon by both sides.
- India facing an altered status quo: Apart from the fact that India now faces an altered status quo and that the PLA is rapidly building war-like infrastructure on its side, for India, the remaining issues are the presence of Chinese troops in the Depsang plains, and intrusions in the Demchok area.
- Tensions seems manageable but situation is unpredictable: The sector-wise compartmentalisation makes the tensions seem manageable, but the reality appears to be that there is no predicting which part of the 3,500 km of the line will flare up suddenly, as it did recently.
- Situation is very serious: Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar flagged the seriousness of the situation when he told Parliament that the Indian deployment at the LAC is at its highest level.
- Despite the advanced surveillance, no clarity on Army’s preparedness: From the short statement by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, it is unclear how prepared the Army was for the transgression at Tawang, despite the advanced Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance devices that have reportedly been installed in that area.
Why China has opened new front in Tawang?
- Status quo along the boundary not only limited to the Western Sector: China has traditionally been active in areas close to Ladakh given the significance of the Xinjiang-Tibet region in its domestic narrative. However, with its sights on an ageing Dalai Lama, and the issue of his succession, Beijing will want to bring into focus its claims on Tawang, and the rest of Arunachal Pradesh.
- Huge investment in infrastructure in eastern sector: China has invested in infrastructure in the Eastern Sector over many years. This includes rail, road, and air connectivity, better telecommunications, as well as improved capacity to station and supply troops and artillery.
- Centrality of the boundary issue in the India-China relationship: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has repeatedly asserted that it is no longer possible to separate the boundary question from the overall relationship and that peace and tranquillity on the LAC is the key to restoring relations. However, China is likely to keep up the pressure on the ground along the LAC, even as they continue to suggest that the two countries look beyond the differences, much like Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s comments during his March 2022 visit when he claimed that the two sides need to “inject more positive energy” into the relationship.
Way ahead
- Delhi should make a push for talks at the diplomatic level even as it ramps up military preparedness.
- Whatever the facts on the ground and regardless of how the tensions will unfold, the government would be well advised to take the Opposition parties into confidence at the earliest.
- A wide political consensus is what the country needs when confronted with tensions at the borders and it is the government’s task and responsibility to build it.
Conclusion
- Delhi should make a push for talks at the diplomatic level even as it ramps up military preparedness. Whatever the facts on the ground and regardless of how the tensions will unfold, the government should take the Opposition parties into confidence at the earliest. A wide political consensus is what the country needs when confronted with tensions at the borders
Mains Question
Q. China has opened new front in the eastern sector. Even after the commander level talks multiple times, frictions between the two continues at LAC. Discuss.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: POCSO ACt, issues with the age of consent
Context
- The Chief Justice of India’s recently raised the concerns about the age of consent under the POCSO Act. CJI quested parliament to review the age under POCSO act.
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What are the issues related to age of consent?
- Criminalization of romantic relationship: The Madras, Delhi and Meghalaya High Courts have flagged matters concerning criminalisation of romantic relationships between or with an adolescent under POCSO.
- AK v. State Govt of NCT of Delhi: On November 12, the Delhi High Court in AK v. State Govt of NCT of Delhi (order by Justice Jasmeet Singh) stated that the intention of POCSO was to protect children below the age of 18 years from sexual exploitation and not to criminalise romantic relationships between consenting young adults.
- Government not in favour of revision of age: The government told Parliament that it does not have any plan to revise the age of consent.
- Blanket ban on anticipatory bail: The recent criminal law amendment in UP that imposed a blanket ban on granting anticipatory bail to a rape accused rubs salt on the already wounded.
- Criminalization of sexual act: POCSO conflates exploitative sexual practice and general sexual expression by an adolescent, and criminalises both.
- Overlooking the voluntary sexual act: Criminal law has become an instrument to silence or regulate a non-exploitative consensual sexual relationship involving a minor girl, which is voluntary.
- Abuse of POCSO act: The obiter of the court that POCSO has become a tool in the hands of certain sections of society to abuse the process of law is corroborated by other courts too.
- Victimization of girls: The cumulative victimisation of the “consenting” girl also deserves the lawmakers’ attention.
Today’s reality of sexual life among adolescent and mismatch in law
- Increased age of consent: The age of consent has increased from 10 to 12 to 14 to 16 and finally to 18 years by the 2013 amendment, in order to bring it in conformity with the then newly legislated POCSO Act.
- Consent of minor girl is illegal: The law disregards the likelihood of a minor girl engaging in sexual activity voluntarily it thus desexualises her.
- Ignoring the social reality: The law that criminalises adolescent sexuality either ignores social reality or pretends to do so.
- Sexual experience before the age of consent: According to the NFHS-5, for instance, 39 per cent women had their first sexual experience before turning 18. The same survey provides additional evidence of sexual engagement among unmarried adolescent girls by reporting contraception use by 45 per cent of unmarried girls in the age group of 15-19 years.
What should be the way forward?
- Separate procedure for POCSO Act: Need to evolve a separate procedure for children while dealing with POCSO cases.
- Victimization should be avoided: Romantic” lovers in a mutually consensual relationship should not be victims of the abuse of the criminal justice system processes.
Conclusion
- Age of consent is matter of debate and cannot be decided alone by judges and judiciary. Need of an hour is a sexual education in the children and adolescence. We need to fight to taboo about sex and debate on sex.
Mains Question
Q. What are the misuse cases under POCSO act? What are the mismatch between todays POCSO act and social reality of adolescent sex life?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Issues with Judicial Infrastructure
Context
- With every new Chief Justice, India’s judicial infrastructure returns to the spotlight. It was Justice S.H. Kapadia who in 2010, first tried to have a systematic plan to examine the conditions of existing infrastructure and realize the future needs of district judiciary.
Attempt at judicial Infrastructure upgrade from Judiciary
- Magistrate infrastructure: We have had Justice T.S. Thakur publicly lament the poor conditions in which magistrates’ function.
- Vacancy in district judiciary: Then Justice Ranjan Gogoi successfully streamlined filling up of vacancies in district judiciary.
- National judicial infrastructure authority: Justice N.V. Ramana initiated a discussion on creation of a national judicial infrastructure authority, which has been rejected.
- Strengthening district judiciary: And now we have Justice D.Y. Chandrachud raising the issue of strengthening the district judiciary.
- Allocation of funds: The Centre has been attempting to improve infrastructure at the district level in a consistent manner by allocating funds.
- Centrally sponsored schemes: Since 1993-94, a centrally sponsored scheme (CSS) of the Union government has tried to address the issue of bringing judicial infrastructure up to par.
- Contribution from states: Through the scheme, the Centre has been earmarking funds with contributions from respective state governments in the ratio of 60:40 (90:10 for North-eastern states and union territories), including monitoring progress of initiated projects.
- No improvement in district courts: Despite the scheme spearheaded by the Ministry of Law and Justice, there hasn’t been any considerable improvement in the physical state of our district courts, leaving successive Chief Justices to lament about the poor state of affairs.
Reasons for non-progress in judicial Infrastructure
- Non-utilization of funds: Most of the funds allocated under the scheme remain unutilised because states do not come forward with their share, leading to lapse of annual budgetary allocation. Sample this: a total of Rs 981.98 crore were sanctioned in 2019-20. Ultimately, only Rs 84.9 crore came to be spent, leaving 91.36% funds unutilised. In 2020-21, of the sanctioned Rs 594.36 crore, Rajasthan emerged on the top by utilising Rs 41.28 crore but again substantial funds lapsed due to non-utilisation.
- No ownership of scheme: There is no single ownership of the scheme. Lack of one coordinating agency prevents its successful execution. The CSS, in its current form, visualises a separate state- and central-level monitoring committees.
- No representation of judiciary in central committees: In the central committee, there is no representation of the judiciary as an institution. So, the ultimate consumer of the scheme is absent from the entire process.
- Lack of planning: Lack of planning for the future also has its casualties. At present, the central scheme does not plan to cater to future requirements. So, there is no discussion on the foreseeable workload of district judiciary in the coming 10-20 years.
- No single agency to implement: The lack of a single agency prevents from realising both the short-term and long-term objectives. Short-term objectives such as constructing courtrooms for the existing judicial strength as opposed to sanctioned strength, record rooms, computer service rooms, etc. suffer in the absence of a single agency that could measure progress of planned initiatives and nudge the stakeholders into acting.
What is the way forward?
- Single dedicated institution: A single permanent body as proposed by Justice Ramana would bring a cohesive approach with ensuring that when states submit action plans for upgrading/establishing judicial infrastructure, they also deposit their share of funds with the authority.
- Working with state government: While the actual work is carried out in partnership with the states, it will ensure that one agency is responsible for mapping out objectives and achieving them.
Conclusion
- Justice is keystone of healthy society and just Nation. India cannot move ahead to its economic prosperity without upgrading its judiciary. Upgrading the judicial infrastructure should be priority for the judiciary as well as government.
Mains Question
Q. Enlist the historical attempt at upgrading judicial infrastructure. Despite so much attempts, what are the major reasons for lack of judicial infrastructure?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: VDA's
Mains level: Virtual Digital Assets (VDA) and Terror Financing
Context
- No Money for Terror conference hosted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs concluded with a commitment from the 93 participating nations to end all financing of terror, including through the use of emerging digital technologies such as VDAs.
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Concerns regarding virtual digital assets
- VDAs for illicit activities: The concerns around the misuse of VDAs for illicit activities require careful legislative responses and forward-looking regulatory guardrails.
- Non reporting and non-transparency: On a fundamental level, these concerns stem from a lack of reporting and transparency norms, and an absence of international consensus on regulatory design.
- Lack of reliable data: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Deputy Director highlighted the difficulty in regulating VDAs, given the lack of reliable data on VDA transactions.
- Unregulated transactions: This allows bad actors to engage in unchecked transactions and defraud investors, as evinced by one of the (erstwhile) largest VDA exchanges FTX.
India’s role in regulating the VDA
- Leveraging G20 Presidency: As one of the highest-ranked countries in terms of VDA adoption, and now with the G20 presidency, India has a critical role to play in shaping the global regulatory environment.
- Empowering anti-money laundering authorities: In the short term, a viable approach for India is in taking the industry and the investor into confidence by allowing anti-money laundering (AML) authorities visibility over VDA transactions, and the power to impose controls upon them and prosecute in the event of any misuse.
- India should adopt FATF guidelines: There are several international templates to this effect. The Financial Action Task Force Guidelines on Virtual Asset Transactions (FATF Guidelines) are a case in point, which have been adopted by various jurisdictions, including the EU, Japan and Singapore.
- Minimum anti-money laundering standards: The FATF prescribes minimum Anti-money laundering standards that countries should employ to prevent the likelihood of misuse, and the FATF Guidelines prescribe the same for VDA transactions.
- Licensing and reporting of VDAs: The Guidelines are applicable to VDA service providers of member states like India. Key features of the FATF Guidelines include licence/registration requirements and extensive reporting and record-keeping obligations for VDA service providers.
- Travel rule obligations: One such obligation is the Travel Rule, which requires service providers to record the originator and beneficiary’s account details, transaction amount, and purpose of transaction for all wire transfers.
- Verifying identity above certain threshold: Customer due diligence obligations, which include verifying the customer and beneficiary’s identities should be conducted for all transactions exceeding $1,000.
- Obligation on service provider: The FATF Guidelines also require VDA service providers to perform enhanced due diligence obligations (such as corroborating the customer’s identity with a national database or potentially tracing the customer’s IP address to ensure there are no links to illicit activities) when a transaction is with a higher-risk country.
What are India’s current laws to regulate VDA?
- PMLA includes reporting obligation: India’s existing Anti-money laundering framework under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) already applies these regulatory tools over traditional financial institutions. Notably, the PMLA also includes reporting obligations for overseas transactions that fall under the ambit of “suspicious transactions” under the framework.
- PMLA doesn’t apply to VDAs: Currently, the PMLA does not apply to the VDA industry.
- government can bring VDA under PMLA: The government has the power to notify any “designated business or profession” as a reporting entity under the PMLA and can issue a notification that classifies VDA service providers as a designated business.
Conclusion
- With the Digital Data Protection Bill and the Digital India Act already in the pipeline, Indians and digital businesses will soon have a coherent rights and responsibility framework to operate within. The time is ripe to extend regulatory oversight over the VDA industry so as to ensure that tech-innovation flourishes in a responsible, accountable manner.
Mains Question
Q. How virtual digital assets and terror financing are interlinked? What is the role of PMLA act in regulation of VDA in India?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Emmployment issues
Context
- Mass prosperity for massive populations is hard. India’s large remittances from a small population overseas and IT sectors employability reinforce that our mass prosperity strategy should be human capital and formal jobs.
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Why human capital formation is effective tool for mass prosperity?
- Disproportionate contribution of IT employees: A strong case for human capital-driven productivity is our software employment — 0.8 per cent of workers generate 8 per cent of GDP.
- Remittance by NRIs: This case is reinforced by remittances from our overseas population of less than 2 per cent of our resident population crossing $100 billion last year.
- Shift towards formal employment: A World Bank report suggests that the qualitative shift during the previous five years from low-skilled, informal employment in Gulf countries (dropped from 54 per cent to 28 per cent) to high-skilled formal jobs in high-income countries (increased from 26 per cent to 36 per cent) is significant.
- Remittances are higher than FDI: Our rich forex remittance harvest roughly 25 per cent higher than FDI and 25 per cent less than software exports is fruit from the tree of human capital and formal jobs.
- Credit availability is bigger issue: Monetary policy is, at best, a placebo, painkiller, or steroid especially since credit availability is a bigger problem in India than credit cost.
- Source of finance is important than expenditure: Global experience suggests where governments spend money (pensions, interest, salaries, education, healthcare, roads, etc) and how this spending is financed (taxes or debt) matters more than how much is spent (about Rs 80 lakh crore in India this year).
- Fiscal policy tends to overshoot: Covid made enormous fiscal and monetary policy demands, but the bigger the binge, the bigger the hangover. Western central banks are struggling to shrink their balance sheets because they used what Harvard’s Paul Tucker calls “unelected power” to chase goals outside their mandate, administer medicine with poorly understood side effects, and speed down highways with no known return paths.
- India avoided the fiscal and monetary trap: Rich-country borrowing rates have risen by 300 per cent plus and inflation hurts the poor the most. India avoided these fiscal and monetary policy excesses. This prudence now combines with previous structural reforms (GST, IBC, MPC, UPI, DBT, NEP, etc) and a reform “tone from the top” to create a fertile habitat for productive citizens and firms.
What should be the strategy in next fiscal year for employment generation?
- Targeting the job creation: The Finance Bill must target productivity and continuity by legislating human capital and formal job reforms previously proposed.
- NEP should be implemented in 5 years: It should reduce the implementation glide path for the powerful National Education Policy 2020 from 15 years to five years.
- Abolishing the licensing: It should abolish separate licensing requirements for online degrees and freely allow all our 1,000-plus accredited universities to launch online learning.
- Accelerating apprentices: It should accelerate growing our 0.5 million apprentices to 10 million by allowing all universities to launch degree apprentice courses under tripartite contracts with employers under the Apprentices Act.
What are the other steps that can be taken through next budget?
- Notify labour code: It should notify the four labour codes for all central-list industries while appointing a tripartite committee to converge them into one labour code by the next budget.
- Universal enterprise number: It should continue EODB reforms by designating every enterprise’s PAN number as its Universal Enterprise Number.
- Remove the factory act: It should explore manufacturing employment by abolishing the Factories Act this painful Act accounts for 8,000 of the 26,000 plus criminal provisions in employer compliance and require all employers to comply under each state’s Shops and Establishment Act (like Infosys, TCS, and IBM India do).
- Ensuring better compliances by employer: It should create a non-profit corporation (like NPCI in payments) that will operate an API-driven National Employer Compliance Grid and enable central ministries and state governments to rationalise, digitise and decriminalise their employer compliances.
- Making EPFO contribution optional: Making employees’ provident fund contributions optional but raising employer PF contributions from the current 12 per cent to 13 per cent. It should notify a previous budget announcement to create employee choice in their contributions to health insurance (ESIC or insurance companies) and pensions (EPFO or NPS).
- Subsidy to high wage employer: Most importantly, it should link all employer subsidies and tax incentives to high-wage employment creation (a difficult-to-fudge and easy-to-measure effectiveness metric for this public spending is employer provident fund payment).
Conclusion
- Experience and evidence now firmly suggest the odds of mass prosperity in the planet’s most populous nation rise from possible to probable by anchoring our strategy in human capital and formal jobs rather than fiscal or monetary policy.
Mains Question
What are the limitations of Fiscal and monetary policy in mass welfare of people? What are the possible strategies for creation of mass prosperity in India?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Transgenic technology and its applications
Mains level: Advantages and disadvantages of Genetically modified Crops and Transgenic Technology
Context
- The Supreme Court’s Technical Expert Committee and two unanimous reports of multi-party parliamentary standing committees have recommended that genetically modified (GM) Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crops should be banned in India.
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Why transgenic technology is worrisome?
- Uncontrollable and irreversible: Transgenic technology, unlike other technologies, is uncontrollable and irreversible after environmental release.
- Self-propagation and proliferation: Living Modified Organisms (LMOs), as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety refers to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), propagate themselves and proliferate.
- Long term assessment is necessary: This process cannot be reversed. Therefore, any deliberate environmental release has to be only after thorough, independent, peer-reviewed assessment of long-term implications.
- Precaution is necessary: The precautionary principle is a cornerstone because of the unpredictability and time lag of serious outcomes manifesting in highly complex living systems, and their irreversibility. To draw a parallel, not a single one of 330 invasive species (for example, lantana, parthenium) in India has yet been eliminated, despite estimated damage of Rs 8.3 trillion by just 10 of them!
Reality check on GM crops
- Less countries adopted GM technology: More than 25 years after their introduction, GM crops are still globally grown in just 29 out of 172 countries. Moreover, 91 per cent of GM crop area continues to be in just five countries (USA, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, India).
- BT cotton demand is declining: Most countries of Europe and Japan, Israel, Russia, Malaysia etc., do not grow GM crops. In China, a first adopter, Bt cotton area has been declining and non-GM hybrid technology is used for rapeseed/mustard.
- Heavy focus on two traits only: Only two traits are present in over 85 per cent of GM crops grown herbicide tolerance (HT, where crop plants are modified to withstand large amounts of toxic weed-killing chemicals), and/or insect resistance (pesticidal toxin, usually Bt, is produced inside the plant).
Negative impact of HT crops
- Damage to ecology: HT crops result in not only ecological damage, but human health impacts for consumers. Like tobacco, once declared safe, the effects take long to manifest.
- Honey production will be affected: Beekeepers say that HT mustard will affect honey production and contaminated honey will damage exports.
- Human health will be affected: As regards human health, probable carcinogenicity, neuro-toxicity, reproductive health problems, organ damage etc. have been documented by independent research on GM crops and associated herbicides, once claimed by developers and regulators to be “safe”.
- Campaign against release of GM crops: Like thousands of doctors in other countries, over 100 eminent Indian doctors have conveyed their concerns asked that no HT food crops be released and the planted GM mustard be uprooted before flowering.
- Proponent says Mustard is not a HT crop: It is claimed that DMH-11 is not an HT crop as the use of the Bar gene which confers an herbicide tolerance trait is essentially for the pollination control technology in creating hybrids, and glufosinate herbicide will only be used during seed production.
- Opponent says it’s a HT crop: The reality is that by virtue of the Bar gene being present in both parental lines, and thereby also in all their hybrid offspring, this GM mustard can withstand application of a toxic weedkiller, glufosinate, including in farmers’ fields. It should therefore have been assessed as an HT crop.
- Government failed to prevent illegal use of HT cotton: If governments, for over 10 years, have been aware of the illegal planting of herbicide tolerant cotton and rampant illegal use of glyphosate on such HT cotton, and have been unable or unwilling to stop this, what “regulatory process” will now prevent farmers in search of low-cost weeding options from spraying glufosinate on herbicide tolerant mustard?
What are the observations of SC and parliamentary Committee?
- Absence of regulatory protocol: The ongoing litigations in the Supreme Court are about serious shortcomings in our regulatory regime. Minutes of meetings of the regulatory body GEAC and the “guidelines and protocols” on the regulator’s website reflect an absence of regulatory protocols for HT crops.
- Inadequate bio testing: And yet a crop with an HT trait is being released in the environment! The technical expert committee (TEC) appointed by the SC and the unanimous multi-party reports of two parliamentary standing committees have exposed serious lapses and inadequacies in bio-safety testing.
- Against the release of GM crops: They all advised that herbicide tolerant crops, which GM Mustard is, should not be released in Indian conditions.
- Government panel recommended the ban: Even the government-nominated experts in the TEC asked for a ban on HT crops. The government, surely, cannot call them unscientific.
- No independent participant in testing: Testing on GM mustard has been done with test protocols evolved by the crop developer, and most tests were done by the applicant. No independent health expert participated in the committees that looked at GM mustard safety.
- No biosafety data: To this day, biosafety data of GM mustard has not been posted on the regulator’s website for independent scrutiny.
Conclusion
- GM crop transgenic technology comes with mixed baggage. Government must strike the balance between biodiversity concern and welfare of farmers. Outright ban or permission without credible data and scrutiny must be avoided.
Mains Question
Q. What are the worrisome aspects of transgenic technology? What are the observations of Supreme court and parliamentary committee regarding GM crops?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: World Ayurveda Congress (WAC), 2022
Mains level: World Ayurveda Congress, Traditional medicines and modern medicines integrated approach.
Context
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi commended the recent growth of traditional medicine (TM), and Ayurveda in particular, while addressing the World Ayurveda Congress 2022 (WAC) earlier this month. Noting the lag in evidence despite considerable research, he gave a clarion call “to bring together medical data, research, and journals and verify claims (benefit) using modern science parameters”.
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All you need to know about World Ayurveda Congress (WAC)
- Platform by World Ayurveda foundation: The World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) is a platform established by World Ayurveda Foundation to propagate Ayurveda globally in its true sense.
- Platform to connect various stakeholders in medicine: World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) is a platform to connect Ayurveda practitioners, medicine manufacturers, enthusiasts and academicians.
- What is the mandate: World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) & Arogya Expo monitors progress and initiate missions and collect feedbacks.
World Ayurveda Congress (WAC), 2022
- 9th edition of WAC held at Panjim, Goa: The 9th edition of World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) & Arogya Expo was organized at PANJIM, GOA.
- Organised by Ministry of AYSUSH on the principle of whole government approach (WGA): The WAC organised by the Ministry of AYUSH on the ‘Whole Government Approach’ (WGA) to foster and strengthen the research ecosystem for AYUSH systems.
- What is Whole System Approach (WSA): The concept of WGA is in consonance with the “Whole System Approach” (WSA). WSA encompasses integrated and network participation of several stakeholders (including patients and the community) for better solutions (treatment outcomes) in a challenging and complex situation. IM is an important component of WSA in the current context.
- Active Participation: The event witnessed the active participation of more than 40 countries and all states of India.
- PM’s vision: To transform the healthcare system of the country and to develop a healthy society, there is a need to think holistically and integrate the Traditional medicine (TM) and modern medicine system (MM).
World Ayurveda Foundation (WAF)
- Aim of WAF: WAF is an initiative by Vijnana Bharati aimed at global propagation of Ayurveda, founded in 2011.
- Objective and core principle: The objectives of WAF reflect global scope, propagation and encouragement of all activities scientific and Ayurveda related are the core principles.
- Focus Areas: Support to research, health-care programmes through camps, clinics and sanatoriums, documentation, organization of study groups, seminars, exhibitions and knowledge initiatives to popularize Ayurveda in the far corners of the world are the broad latitudes of focus at WAF.
What is Traditional Medicine?
- According to WHO: The WHO describes traditional medicine as the total sum of the “knowledge, skills and practices indigenous and different cultures have used over time to maintain health and prevent, diagnose and treat physical and mental illness”.
- Culmination of multiple ancient practices: Its reach encompasses ancient practices such as acupuncture, ayurvedic medicine and herbal mixtures as well as modern medicines.
- Percentage of people use traditional medicine: of According to WHO estimates, 80% of the world’s population uses traditional medicine.
Traditional medicine in India
- It is often defined as including practices and therapies such as Yoga, Ayurveda, Siddha that have been part of Indian tradition historically, as well as others such as homeopathy that became part of Indian tradition over the years.
- Ayurveda and yoga are practised widely across the country.
- The Siddha system is followed predominantly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
- The Sowa-Rigpa System is practised mainly in Leh-Ladakh and Himalayan regions such as Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Darjeeling, Lahaul & Spiti.
How TM modalities (such as Ayurveda or homoeopathy) can scientifically align with MM for a better outcome?
- Remarkable success in treating neurological diseases: A recently established Department of IM in NIMHANS continued to show remarkable success in treating difficult neurological diseases with a team of Ayurvedic and MM physicians and carefully planned and monitored IM strategy.
- CRD projects: Modern rheumatology practice in the Centre for Rheumatic Diseases (CRD) model includes critical elements of TM and Ayurveda, which have shown unequivocal evidence in CRD research projects
- Evaluation based on other protocols: Several controlled protocols-based evaluations of standardised Ayurvedic drugs and other TM modalities (such as diet, exercise, yoga, and counselling), often in conjunction with MM, in arthritis patients, were completed.
- Sustained clinical improvement in patients suffering from active Rheumatoid arthritis (RA): RA is a severely painful crippling lifelong autoimmune condition, mostly seen in women, and universally acknowledged as difficult to treat. Supervised and monitored IM intervention (including Ayurvedic drugs) over several years showed a consistently superior and sustained clinical improvement in patients suffering from active RA.
- AYUSH systems include Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Unani, Siddha, and other TM.
- AYUSH systems and MM differ radically in several ways or so it seems.
- Modern scientific research in Ayurveda is often at variance with classical Ayurveda.
- Unlike MM, TM has at its core a personalised approach. MM is dominantly reductionist.
- The ambitious futuristic programme of TM and IM by AYUSH is well-intended and in the right direction.
Conclusion
- TM and Ayurveda need to respond to the new world order, which has changed substantially recently. It is reasonably certain that MM and TM in the current format will continue to treat several medical disorders and altered health states. But evidence-based medicine will become the new mantra. Also, informed and empowered patients and people will continue to make the right choices.
Mains question
Q. What is World Ayurveda congress? What is tradition medicines? How Traditional medicines can align with modern medicines to treat several serious medical disorders.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ASAT, space debris and related facts
Mains level: Space weaponization why ASAT test band is important
Context
- There is growing momentum behind a global moratorium on destructive kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) tests. A few days ago, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution calling for a ban on kinetic ASAT tests.
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What the resolution is all about?
- Sponsored by United states: The resolution was sponsored by the United States along with a number of other countries that have been concerned about the consequences of ASAT tests on the safety and sustainability of outer space.
- Majority voted in support: As many as 155 countries voted in support of the resolution, nine voted against it, and nine others abstained.
- Those who voted against the resolution: Belarus, Bolivia, Central African Republic, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, and Syria.
- Countries with abstention: The nine abstentions were India, Laos, Madagascar, Pakistan, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Togo, and Zimbabwe.
Provisions of the resolution over the ban of ASAT
- No binding effect but urges to prevent arms race in outer space: The ASAT test-ban resolution has no binding effect on states and simply calls on states to put a stop to ASAT tests and to develop further practical steps and contribute to legally binding instruments on the prevention of an arms race in outer space.
- Other space related resolutions also passed: Along with the ASAT test-ban resolution that was passed on December 7, there were several more space- and nuclear-related resolutions, including No First Placement of Weapons in Outer Space (NFP).
- Support to minimize risks in space: Indeed, the resolution continues to support the broader efforts at developing “further practical steps” to minimize risks in space.
What is ASAT?
- ASATs (Anti-Satellite Weapons): According to a document of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), ASATs (Anti-Satellite Weapons) are aimed at destroying or disabling space assets, whether military or civilian, offensive or defensive.
- They are generally of two types: kinetic and non-kinetic.
- Kinetic ASATs: They must physically strike an object in order to destroy it. Examples of kinetic ASATs include ballistic missiles, drones or any item launched to coincide with the passage of a target satellite. This means any space asset, even a communications satellite, could become an ASAT if it is used to physically destroy another space object.
- Non-kinetic ASATs: A variety of nonphysical means can be used to disable or destroy a space object. These include frequency jamming, blinding lasers or cyberattacks. These methods can also render an object useless without causing the target to break up and fragment absent additional forces intervening.
- Threat to peaceful utilization of outer space: ASAT tests represent a direct threat to peaceful utilization of outer space on which everyone in the global community depends.
- Threat to safety of satellites: In recent years, there has been a spurt in activities that threaten the safety and functioning of satellites. The November 15, 2021, ASAT test by Russia, which destroyed the Cosmos 1408 satellite, is a case in point.
- Space debris a potential hazard to Space station: The test created about 1,800 tracked pieces of space debris and possibly many more pieces that are difficult to track, and a hazard for astronauts aboard the International Space Station
- Rare, high-tech, and risky to test: ASAT is an anti-satellite weapon that can target enemy satellites, blinding them or disrupting communications besides providing a technology base for intercepting ballistic missiles.
Way ahead
- There are other initiatives underway in the U.N., such as the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on reducing space threats through norms, rules, and principles of responsible behaviours.
- Like the ASAT test ban, these are needed to make progress on the broader space security agenda.
- Whether a legal measure or a norm, states have to take small preventative steps before space becomes completely a warfighting domain.
Conclusion
- Given the worsening space security conditions, with more countries pursuing development of ASATs and other counterspace capabilities, it is time that more countries join the current initiative to stop further ASAT tests. Unless countries can make a conscious decision to come together and work on ways to halt the current trends with regard to space weaponization, continued access to outer space is not a given.
Mains question
Q. What are ASATs? There is growing momentum behind a global moratorium on destructive kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) tests. In light of this discuss Why ASAT must be banned?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Climate change and associated migration
Context
- Climate-induced displacements have increased both in numbers and magnitude worldwide. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s (IDMC) report, 23.7 million people experienced displacements in 2021 as a result of cyclones and floods.
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Estimates about Migration
- IOM estimates: The International Organisation on Migration (IOM) estimates that on a global scale, between 25 million and 1 billion people would be compelled to migrate from their homes because of climate change and environmental degradation by 2050.
- Situation in south Asia: South Asia is no exception to it. Disasters cause most of the internal displacements occurring in South Asia every year, and in the year 2021, nearly 5.3 million disaster displacements were reported.
- CANSA Report: The Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) reports that approximately 45 million people in India alone, shall be compelled to migrate by 2050 due to climate disasters, with a threefold increase in current figures.
How women and children are most vulnerable?
- UN report: The United Nations asserts that around 80 percent of climate change displaces include women.
- Global International Migrant Stock: The present share of women migrants in the Global International Migrant Stock oscillates between 48 percent and 52 percent, as they frequently experience ‘triple discrimination’ given their positions as women, unprotected workers and migrants.
- Developing countries are most vulnerable: The situation becomes even more precarious in developing countries like India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and several small island nations in the Pacific Ocean.
- Violence is likely: Women uprooted due to climate change become more vulnerable to violence, human trafficking, and armed conflicts. For instance, a study by the Sierra Club (2018) revealed how women impacted by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar witnessed increased occurrences of sexual and domestic abuse, forced prostitution, and sex and labour trafficking.
What is the New York Declaration on international Migration?
- Global compact for migration (GCM): It mandated the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) in 2018 and for the first time, a comprehensive framework recognising the concept of climate change-induced migration within the broader concept of international migration was developed.
- Global compact on refugee: The Declaration also paved the way for an adoption of a Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) in the same year, but an extension of refugee law to cater to the needs of those displaced by the forces of climate change does not really resolve this humanitarian concern.
- More investment in research: It also highlights the need for pumping in more investments towards research to tackle the challenges of environmental migration and rests on important climate change mitigation instruments like the Paris Climate Agreement, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
- Share responsibility on states: The Zero Draft of the GCM itself highlights how it sets out shared responsibilities of the states in commitment to the causes of migration– showing how the GCM relies on the countries having a sense of moral responsibility for the fulfilment of its goals and objectives.
Discussion in COP27 about climate migration
- Global goal on adaptation: The 2022 Conference of the Parties’ (or COP27) summit was seen as a platform that would lend visibility to the concept of climate migration, especially in light of how a work programme for defining a Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) towards identifying collective needs and solutions in light of the ongoing climate crisis that has already affected so many countries around the world, was established in the 2021 COP26 summit.
- Lack of progress on migration: While COP27 established a framework towards the attainment of the GGA (likely to be adopted in 2023 at COP28), its progress towards protecting and assisting climate migrants remains in a state of limbo.
- Task force on displacement: As highlighted in a study by the ECDM, the key problem lies in how the Task Force on Displacement has projected climate-induced mobility as a “loss and damage” concern, in turn putting forth the idea that this kind of human mobility stands as a failed adoption strategy.
- No clear reference to climate migration: Paragraph 40 of the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration talks about preventing irregular migration flows, the trafficking of migrants and holding such talks in the future G20 summits to come, but the term “climate migration” fails to make an appearance.
- Leverage G20 for climate migration consensus: India seeks to play a significant role in the international efforts for climate action, and its commitment can be reflected in it being party to the UNFCCC and its instruments–the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Its presidency could provide a platform for the G20 countries to work together in addressing the growing concerns of human mobility in forms of both migration and displacements.
- Intergovernmental dialogue: Also, knowledge gaps pertaining to human mobility because of climate change and environmental degradation can be addressed through intergovernmental dialogues to be held at the G20 platform under India’s Presidency.
Conclusion
- Policymakers meet to discuss the several concerns of climate change at various platforms, progress concerning any support for the climate migrants remain insufficient till date, resting on goodwill gestures instead. World must pay attention and money to firmly address the climate migration issue.
Mains Question
Q. What is climate induced migration? How women and children are most vulnerable to climate migration? What role India can play to address the issue?
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