Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Importance of middle powers in Arab Gulf
Context
On December 19, Pakistan hosted a special session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to address the crisis in Afghanistan.
The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and how regional countries are responding to it
- The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is peaking with no basic amenities available for its population and a harsh winter ahead.
- While Pakistan hosted the OIC, India played host to foreign ministers of Central Asian states where Afghanistan topped the agenda as well.
- All the attending countries — Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan — also OIC members, chose to prioritise deliberations with New Delhi.
Qatar’s growing influence in Afghanistan and implications for the region
- Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Pakistan were the only three countries that had officially recognised the previous Taliban government in 1996, until its fall in 2001.
- Fast forward to the 2010s, and it was the small but rich state of Qatar that became the mediating force on Afghanistan.
- Doha hosted the official Taliban political office from 2013 to allow negotiations with the U.S.
- Qatar’s new role on Afghanistan gave it significant diplomatic and political visibility the world over.
- In West Asia, Qatar’s growing influence was causing unease in the traditional power centres in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, specifically on issues such as the Qatari leadership’s support for political Islam and organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
Fundamental changes
- Economic blockade: In 2017 the UAE and Saudi Arabia initiated an economic blockade against Doha in the hope of reigning the Kingdom in and disallowing it from pursuing its geopolitical designs that were challenging the long-held power status quos.
- This four-year long impasse ended in 2021.
- These four years created fundamental changes within the larger Arab Gulf construct.
- Qatar mitigated risk and moved closer towards Turkey and Iran.
- Today, both Qatar and Turkey are bidding to operate a landlocked Afghanistan’s airports under the Taliban regime.
- For the Gulf specifically, Qatar’s punching-above-its-weight approach in geopolitics was also making it more powerful and influential with Washington D.C.
- To mitigate this, the Saudis played a central role during the recent OIC special session.
- They repaired their broken relationship with Pakistan.
Way forward for India
- Over the past decade, India has recognised the importance of middle powers in the Arab Gulf to a fast-evolving global order, from fighting against terrorism to newer diplomacy challenges such as Afghanistan.
Conclusion
The Arab Gulf is poised to become an important player once again in Afghanistan under the shadow of the Taliban.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Dealing with Covid
Context
The Government must make COVID-19 data including that for vaccine regulatory approvals and policy available.
Kay decisions
- On December 25, the Prime Minister of India announced two key decisions.
- Vaccination of children: All children in the 15-17 age bracket will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines from January 3, 2022.
- Third shot: All health-care workers, frontline workers and the people aged 60 years and above (with co-morbidities and on the advice of a medical doctor) can get a third shot, or ‘precaution dose’.
- The eligibility for the precaution dose will be on the completion of nine months or 39 weeks after the second dose.
- Teenage children whose birth year is 2007 or before will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
- Children will receive Covaxin, the reason being (according to the note) it is the only emergency use listed (EUL) World Health Organization vaccine available for use in this age group in India.
Issues with the decision
- Lack of scientific evidence: The decision is said to be based on ‘advice of the scientific community’.
- A few members of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) in India, have written or spoken publicly about not having enough scientific evidence to administer booster doses and vaccinate children in India.
- Successive national and State-level sero-surveys have reported that a majority of children in India had got natural infection, while staying at home and thus developed antibodies.
- The studies have shown that children rarely develop moderate to severe COVID-19 disease.
- Targeted vaccination approach not adopted: Most public health and vaccine experts favour a ‘targeted vaccination approach’ by prioritising high-risk children for COVID-19 vaccination.
- However, such an approach is likely to face an operational challenge in the identification of the eligible children.
- Consultation cost: A majority of the elderly have one or other comorbidities. Of the 14 crore elderly population in India, an estimated 7 to 10 crore people could have co-morbidities.
- If they have to seek advice from a physician, in order to get vaccinated, this essentially means that there would be up to 10 crore of medical consultations, which would come at a cost — all of which is avoidable.
Suggestions
- Do away with prescription: The conditionality of comorbidities and the need for advice/prescription by a doctor for ‘the precaution shot’ in the elderly should be done away with.
- Third dose to all immunocompromised adults: There is scientific evidence and consensus on administering the third dose for immunocompromised adults.
- The Indian government should urgently consider administering a third dose for all immunocompromised adults, irrespective of age.
- Third dose on a different vaccine platform: Studies have found that a heterologous prime-boost approach — third shot on a different vaccine platform — is a better approach.
- Identify policy questions: Various pending policy questions on COVID-19 vaccine need to be identified urgently.
- The technical expert should be given complete access to COVID-19 data for analysis and to find answers to those scientific and policy questions.
- Vaccine supply and stock management: Vaccination for teenage children, exclusively with Covaxin (which means 15 crore doses for this sub-group) has other implications.
- Covaxin will also be needed for people coming for their first shot, returning for their second shot, and then for their ‘precaution dose’ if a third shot of the same vaccine is allowed.
- Focus on primary vaccination: The precaution dose and vaccination for children should not divert attention from the task of primary vaccination, which continues to be an unfinished task in India; 46 crore doses are still needed for the first and second shots.
- Make data public: It is time the Union and State governments in India make COVID-19 data — this includes clinical outcomes, testing, genomic sequencing as well as vaccination — available in the public domain.
- This would help in formulating and updating COVID-19 policy and strategies and also assess the impact of ‘precaution dose’ as well as vaccination of children.
Conclusion
The Indian government urgently needs to make COVID-19 data available, including the one used for regulatory approvals of vaccines and for vaccine policy decisions. This will bring transparency in decision making and increase the trust of the citizen in the process.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Aadhar-voter ID linking issue
Context
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which facilitates amendment to the Representation of People’s Act, is a step toward implementing online-based remote e-voting for which the use of Aadhaar will be the primary identity.
Objectives of linking
- The linking of Aadhaar with one’s voter ID was primarily to build a biometric dependent voting system from the very beginning.
- The change could help fight fraud and duplicates in the electoral rolls.
About the pilot programmes on linking the voter id
- In 2014, the Election Commission of India (ECI) conducted two pilot programmes on linking the voter id with Aadhaar in the districts of Nizamabad and Hyderabad.
- Based on the effectiveness, the ECI called for a National Consultation on Aadhaar and voter id linking.
- The ECI launched the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP) on April 1, 2015, which had to be completed by August 31, 2015.
- After a Supreme Court of India order on August 11, 2015, it was announced that this NERPAP would be shut down.
- But as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were early adopters of this programme since 2014, both States have nearly completed linking Aadhaar and voter id for all residents.
- Methodology is unknown: The methodology followed by the ECI to find duplicate voters using Aadhaar is unknown to the general public.
- SRDH data used: In a letter from the CEO Andhra Pradesh (then for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) to the ECI, it is clear that the State Resident Data Hub (SRDH) application of the Government of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was used to curate electoral rolls.
- The SRDH has data on residents of the State which is supplied by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or collected further by the State governments.
- While the UIDAI was constrained not to collect data on caste, religion and other sensitive information data for Aadhaar, it recommended to the States to collect this information, if required, as part of Aadhaar data collection; it termed the process as Know Your Resident (KYR) and Know Your Resident Plus (KYR+).
- It is these SRDH applications that the ECI used to curate electoral rolls which resulted in the deletion of a sizeable number of voters from the list in Telangana in 2018.
Concerns
- Disenfranchisement: The role of the ECI to verify voters using door-to-door verification (in 2015) has been subsumed; a software algorithm commissioned by the Government for purposes unknown to the public and maintained by a private IT company is in control now.
- Subjecting key electoral rolls to surveillance software damages the concept of universal adult suffrage.
- What the experience in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh highlights is voter suppression and disenfranchisement.
- Issue of ensuring electoral integrity: In a situation where the role of money makes a mockery of the democratic process, linking Aadhaar will be futile.
- Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), if foolproof, put an end to the days of booth capturing prevalent in the days of paper ballots.
- E-voting can also be gamed using malware to change the outcome of an election.
- While the Bill does not look into large-scale e-voting, there is an issue of ensuring electoral integrity.
- Voter profiling: An Aadhaar-voter ID linkage will also help political parties create voter profiles and influence the voting process.
- Online trends on the day of voting and micro-targeting voters using their data will make it easier for political parties in power to use data for elections.
Consider the question “What are the objectives of Aadhar-Voter Id linking? What are the concerns associated with such linking?”
Conclusion
The linking of Aadhaar with voter ID will create complexities in the voter databases that will be hard to fix. This process will introduce errors in electoral rolls and vastly impact India’s electoral democracy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EPR
Mains level: Paper 3- Regulations on EPR and issues with them
Context
In October, the Environment Ministry published draft regulations on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), set to come into effect by the end of this year. These regulations denote a backslide, particularly with respect to integration of the informal sector.
What is EPR?
- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requires the manufacturer of a product, or the party that introduces the product into the community, to take responsibility for its life cycle.
- An FMCG company should not only account for the costs of making, packing and distributing a packet of chips, but also for the collection and recycling/reuse of the packet.
Shortcomings in the guidelines
The guidelines fall short in three areas: people, plastics and processing.
[1] Integration of informal sector is lacking
- By failing to mention waste pickers or outlining mechanisms for their incorporation under EPR, the guidelines are retrogressive.
- For decades, waste pickers, working in dangerous and unsanitary conditions, have picked up what we throw away.
- Besides, by diverting waste towards recycling and reuse, waste pickers also subsidise local governments responsible for solid waste management.
- Further, they reduce the amount of waste accumulating in cities, water bodies and dumpsites and increase recycling and reuse, creating environmental and public health benefits.
- Between 1.5 and 4 million waste pickers in India work without social security, health insurance, minimum wages or basic protective gear.
- Suggestions: An effective EPR framework should address the issue of plastics and plastic waste management in tandem with the existing machinery, minimise duplication and lead to a positive environmental impact, with monitoring mechanisms including penalties for non-compliance.
- EPR funds could be deployed for mapping and registration of the informal sector actors, building their capacity, upgrading infrastructure, promoting technology transfer, and creating closed loop feedback and monitoring mechanisms.
[2] The scope of plastic covered need to be altered
- The EPR guidelines are limited to plastic packaging.
- There are other multi-material plastic items like sanitary pads, chappals, and polyester that pose a huge waste management challenge today, but have been left out of the scope of EPR.
- Three categories of plastic packaging: Plastic packaging can be roughly grouped into three categories: recyclable and effectively handled by the informal sector, technologically recyclable but not economically viable to recycle, technologically challenging to recycle (or non-recyclable).
- [1] Rigid plastics like PET and HDPE are effectively recycled.
- Suggestion: The government could support and strengthen the informal recycling chain by bridging gaps in adequate physical spaces, infrastructure, etc.
- [2] Typically flexible plastics like LDPE and PP bags are recyclable, but due to their contamination with organic waste, lightweight, and high volume, the costs of recycling are prohibitively expensive relative to the market value of the output.
- Suggestion: Market value for these plastics can be increased by increasing the demand for and use of recycled plastics in packaging, thus creating the value to accommodate the current costs of recycling.
- [3] Multi-layered and multi-material plastics are low weight and voluminous, making them expensive to handle and transport.
- Since they are primarily used in food packaging, they often attract rodents, making storage problematic.
- Even if this plastic is picked, recycling is technologically challenging as it is heterogeneous material.
- The Plastic Waste Management Rules mandated the phase-out of these plastics.
- However, in 2018, this mandate was reversed.
[3] Processing technologies need to be closely evaluated
- Not all processing is recycling.
- Processes like waste-to-energy, co-processing and incineration have been proven to release carbon dioxide, particulate matter, harmful dioxins and furans which have negative climate and health impacts.
- While the environmental impact and desirability of these processes continues to be debated, the draft regulations legitimise them to justify the continued production of multi-layered plastics.
- Technologies like chemical recycling and pyrolysis are capital-intensive, yielding low returns and running into frequent breakdowns and technological problems.
- They also release carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
- These end-of-life processes are economically, environmentally and operationally unsustainable.
- A number of gasification, pyrolysis and other chemical recycling projects have figured in accidents such as fires, explosions and financial losses.
Way forward
- Address issues of the informal sector: The consultation process should involve informal workers.
- Alter the scope of plastics covered: The scope of plastics covered by the guidelines could be altered to exclude those plastics which are already efficiently recycled and to include other plastic and multi-material items.
- Processing technologies should be closely evaluated: And end-of-life processing technologies should be closely evaluated, based not only on their health and environmental impacts, but also on the implications for continued production of low-quality and multi-layered plastics.
Consider the question ” The Environment Ministry published draft regulations on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Examine the issues with the regulations and suggest the way forward”
Conclusion
In conclusion, the government should redo the consultation process for the draft guidelines.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-Myanmar relations
Context
The recent short visit to Myanmar by India’s Foreign Secretary had a clearly-etched mandate: to deepen cooperation with an important neighbour. His mission succeeded to a large extent, but challenges remain.
Background of the current political scenario in Myanmar
- Transition to democracy and derailment: Since the military coup on February 1, 2021, the international community has stayed divided on how to address the derailment of Myanmar’s transition to democracy.
- For a decade, the country’s system based on power-sharing between the military and elected representatives ran well enough.
- An overwhelming electoral victory of the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in November 2020, unnerved the military leadership.
- The Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) moved faster, seizing power in violation of the Constitution and putting down the Opposition with an iron hand.
- Global reaction: Global dismay was evident in the western sanctions, but others such as Russia saw the opportunity to strengthen ties with the new rulers.
- China took urgent steps to stabilise and expand cooperation with the military regime.
- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) first showed creativity through its ‘Five-Point Consensus’ formula, but later its unity stood damaged once Myanmar’s top leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing refused to cooperate.
India’s position and bilateral concerns
- In Indian foreign Secretary Mr. Shringla visit he succeeded in holding substantive discussions with various stakeholders.
- India’s position: India’s position, as conveyed to Myanmar, is similar to and supportive of ASEAN: release of political prisoners; resolution of issues through dialogue; cessation of “all violence”; and full cooperation with ASEAN.
- Assistance for capacity building: In recent years, India has assisted Myanmar through capacity-building programmes for strengthening the transition to democracy.
- This assistance remains available, but it is not an offer of mediation by India in the military-NLD conflict.
- This burden will have to be borne by ASEAN.
- India’s concerns: India’s principal concerns pertaining to border security and stability in its neighbourhood were clearly conveyed, especially the noticeable escalation of activities of anti-India insurgent groups.
- Refugee issue: The second issue — the outcome of Myanmar’s instability — is that of refugees. Several thousands of Myanmar people have sought shelter in Mizoram.
- This will only be reversed by a political settlement in Myanmar, through dialogue.
- Economic cooperation: Economic cooperation has always been a major agenda item in all bilateral discussions with Myanmar.
- Central to this is India’s long-delayed commitment to “expeditious implementation” of mega initiatives such as the Trilateral Highway and Kaladan projects.
Way forward
- China is not the only friend: India continues to have high equity in Myanmar, which it must now carefully leverage.
- It is reflected in the special gesture made by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to receive Mr. Shringla and hold detailed discussions in Yangon. This is unusual.
- The protocol departure for Mr. Shringla revealed current political realities which should be carefully factored in against the argument that China is the only friend Myanmar has.
- Leverage the gainst of the visit: India can leverage the gains of this visit and keep up the momentum by inviting Myanmar’s Foreign Minister at an appropriate time as well as other important stakeholders to India for deliberations with their counterparts here.
Conclusion
The single goal should be to put Myanmar back on the path of becoming “a stable, democratic and federal union.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Extending coverage to OP care
Context
Over the past two decades, initiatives announced to extend health care coverage to the indigent sections have come under criticism due to their near-exclusive focus on hospitalisation (inpatient, IP) care.
Significance of outpatient health care
- What is outpatient health care: Outpatient (OP) health care, mainly comprising doctor consultations, drugs, and tests, can be called ‘the elephant in the room’ of Indian public health care policy.
- OP expenses have the majority share in total out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure on health.
Why do we need to extend OP care coverage?
- How IP care differs from OP care? IP care comprises high-impact and unavoidable episodes that are less prone to misuse than OP care, for which demand is considerably more sensitive to price and is thus more prone to overuse under health insurance.
- IP insurance prioritised: This logic, among other reasons, has led to IP insurance schemes being prioritised.
- [1] OP care and preventive care is neglected: While a price-sensitive demand for OP care entails that it could be misused under insurance, it also means that OP care is the first to come under the knife when there is no insurance.
- In India, where there are many public IP insurance schemes but no OP coverage, this incentive is further amplified.
- The mantra of ‘prevention is better than cure’ thus goes for a toss.
- [2] Against economic sense: It defies economic sense to prioritise IP care over OP care for public funds.
- Preventive and primary care services which often come with externalities, elicit little felt need and demand, and must therefore be the primary recipients of public investment.
- Not conducive to epidemiological profile: Greater investments in IP care today translate to even greater IP care investments in future, further reduction in primary care spending, and ultimately lesser ‘health’ for the money invested.
- None of these are conducive to the epidemiological profile that characterises this country.
Issues with using private commercial insurance to extend OP care coverage nationwide
- Some recent policy pronouncements by the Centre have conveyed an inclination to expand healthcare coverage with little fiscal implications for the government.
- Challenges:
- [1] The OP practices are under-regulated and there is a lack of standards.
- [2] The difficulty to monitor OP clinical and prescribing behaviours and the concomitant higher likelihood of malpractices.
- [3] Low public awareness of insurance products and a low ability to discern entitlements and exclusions.
- [4] Add to it the inexperience that a still under-developed private OP insurance sector brings.
- All these entail tremendous and largely wasteful costs and administrative complexity, and it would be of little help even if the government was to step in with considerable subsidies.
Suggestion
- Need for fiscal and time commitment: Significant improvements in healthcare are implausible without significant fiscal and time commitments.
- No perfect model: There is no ‘perfect’ model of expanding healthcare — the emphasis must be on finding the best fit.
- Implementing even such a best fit could involve adopting certain modalities with known drawbacks.
- Expand public spending: The focus must be on expanding public OP care facilities and services financed mainly by tax revenues.
- For India, wisdom immediately points to successful countries that are (or were, at one point) much closer to its socioeconomic fabric, such as Thailand, than countries like the U.S. which we currently look to emulate.
- Now, the sparse number and distribution of public facilities offers various modes of rationing care, and their expansion is likely to result in a considerable spike in demand.
- Contracting with private players: Contracting with private players based on objective and transparent criteria would also be called for, with just enough centralised supervision to deter corruption while preserving local autonomy.
- To deter supply-side malpractices, low-powered modes of provider payment, such as capitation, may be considered for private providers wherever possible.
Conclusion
There are several compelling reasons for extending outpatient health care coverage even though there are several challenges to overcome to achieve this.
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Context
The dramatic changes in technology have created new challenges for the law, lawmakers, courts and lawyers to confront.
Challenges posed by technological transformation
- Technology has outpaced the law, and lawmakers are being challenged by how quickly “we the people” have embraced technological transformations.
- Challenges of regulation: Challenges include regulation of digital media platforms, censorship of Over The Top (OTT) streaming services, fixing accountability for procuring and deploying spyware like Pegasus, dealing with the bias within artificial intelligence etc.
- Regulation of cryptocurrencies: In probably no other area are lawmakers required to appreciate science and technology than in cryptocurrency.
- With 10 crore users of cryptocurrency and crypto assets in India, this ever-expanding market is almost entirely unregulated.
Practices or legislative models that have been adopted the other countries for regulation of cryptocurrencies
- KYC, AML and CFT: Countries where cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets are legal have frameworks that mandate KYC (know your customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering) mechanisms and demand adherence to CFT (Combating Financing of Terrorism) requirements.
[1] How Singapore regulates crypto-currencies?
- Singapore adopted the approach which favours strong regulation rather than ban.
- Common law to regulate traditional and cryptocurrencies: Singapore has the Payments Services Act, 2020 that has streamlined both traditional and cryptocurrencies under one law.
- Provision for licences: The law also provides a framework to obtain licences to operate crypto businesses.
[2] How Switzerland regulates cryptocurrencies?
- Switzerland has also favoured the strong regulation model overseen by an already established financial regulator.
- Provision for licences: The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) that oversees the country’s financial markets mandates that all virtual asset service providers, including cryptocurrency exchanges must be licenced.
- KYC, AML and CFT procedures must be strictly complied with. These are the checks on the use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets that could facilitate criminal enterprise.
[3] Approach adopted by the US
- Crypto exchanges to be transmitters: The US does not consider cryptocurrency to be legal tender but defines cryptocurrency exchanges to be money transmitters.
- Cryptocurrencies as property: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) treats cryptocurrency as property for US federal taxation purposes.
- Exchanges must obtain requisite licences from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and implement the standard AML and CFT requirements that have become the norm in most jurisdictions that regulate cryptocurrencies.
- Revenue potential: One of the most important lessons to absorb from the US is the revenue potential of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets.
Conclusion
In India, the need of the times is thoughtful legislation and rigorous regulation of cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets that are already here and being used.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ECI and SECs
Mains level: Paper 2- Electoral reforms
Context
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill that seeks to link the electoral rolls with the Aadhaar database has been passed by both the Houses of the parliament.
Three electoral reforms
- A wide range of electoral reform proposals has been pending with the government, several of them for over two decades.
- The three reforms — common electoral rolls for Vidhan Sabha and panchayat elections, extending the qualifying date for registration of young new voters, and linking of Aadhaar with electoral rolls — taken up by the Union Cabinet on December 15 are, therefore, significant.
[1] Common electoral rolls
- For years, the ECI has been advocating a common electoral roll for all elections.
- Currently, separate electoral rolls are maintained for elections to the Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and local government bodies (panchayats or municipal).
- Role of ECI and SECs: There are two types of election management bodies in the country — the ECI that conducts the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections and SECs that conduct panchayat and municipal elections.
- The process for making electoral rolls is laid down in the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
- The SECs have the option of either adopting the electoral rolls created by the ECI or preparing such rolls on their own.
- Most prefer to use the rolls prepared by the ECI.
- Some states, however, develop their rolls independently.
- These are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
- Considering that a voter for all three tiers of elected bodies is the same, why is it that she finds her name missing from one of the rolls, mostly the panchayat rolls?
- This is particularly surprising when the officials responsible for making both these rolls are the same.
- A common electoral roll is thus a logical solution.
Benefits of common electoral rolls
- Tackling stuffing voters: A common experience has been the stuffing of bogus voters in the panchayat/municipal rolls.
- Corrupt practices are proportionately higher in PRI polls.
- Avoid the involvement of teachers in the non-teaching work: The process of making electoral rolls is usually done by the schoolteachers.
- Their involvement in non-teaching work takes its toll.
- Cost-saving: A common electoral roll will obviate the need for deploying them repeatedly, besides saving enormous costs.
Suggestions for preparation of common electoral rolls
- Issue joint instructions: The ECI and SECs can issue joint instructions for preparing the common rolls. The roll-making machinery stays the same.
- Pilot studies may be conducted in random constituencies to identify the discrepancies between two sets of rolls and their reasons.
What are the constitutional and legal changes required?
- Amendment in Article 243K and 243ZA: The SECs derive their powers to supervise local body elections from Articles 243K and 243ZA of the Constitution.
- Changes in State laws: All state governments would have to change their electoral laws to adopt ECI electoral rolls for local elections.
[2] Eligibility date of new voters
- According to Section 14(b) of the Representation of People Act of 1950, only those who have turned 18 on or before January 1 of the year are to be registered.
- This implies that all those who turn 18 between January 2 and December 31 of a year must wait till the next year.
- This technicality results in the exclusion of a large section of 18-year-olds.
Suggestion by ECI on eligibility date
- The ECI had sent a letter to the Law Ministry on November 4, 2013, which recommended the issuing of a voter card to an individual ideally on their 18th birthday, or updating voter rolls every month or quarter.
- A committee of the Ministry of Law and Justice under Sushil Kumar Modi has proposed quarterly cut-off dates for voter registration — January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1.
[3] Aadhar linking
- The proposal to link electoral rolls with Aadhaar was first mooted by the ECI in 2015 but work on it had to be stopped when the Supreme Court ruled that Aadhaar cannot be used except voluntarily for beneficiary-oriented schemes.
- Benefits of linking: The linking will help in identifying duplicate voters, something that ECI has been desperately attempting for years using various “de-duplication” software with limited success.
Consider the question “What are the concerns with linking of Aadhar and electoral rolls? Suggest the way forward.”
Conclusion
Any progress in addressing the vexed issue of electoral reform — even in a piecemeal manner — is welcome. The time has, however, come for the government to consider the 40-plus pending proposals, instead of selectively going for some reforms.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Linking Aadhar with electoral roll
Context
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed in the Lok Sabha recently. It seeks to link electoral rolls with the Aadhaar ecosystem.
What are the concerns with linking of Aadhar with electoral roll?
[1] Aadhar is not proof of citizenship
- Aadhaar is not meant to be a citizenship proof but only a digital identity for all residents.
- Residence of 182 days can make even a non-citizen eligible for an Aadhaar ID.
[2] Aadhar is not address proof
- According to public statements by several government functionaries, Aadhaar was only meant to be identity proof but not address proof.
- Electoral roll is based on Aadhar: In contrast, the RER clearly stipulates address to be a key index for electoral rolls.
- Different enrollment process: Moreover, the enrolment processes for voters’ lists and Aadhaar are completely different.
- Whereas Aadhaar enrolment is based on production of existing documents and the “introducer system”, voter enrolments involve physical verification and “house visits” by a registration officer or representative.
[3] No audit report on the efficacy of Aadhaar deduplication or on the authenticity of the Aadhaar database
- Even the Supreme Court accepted the Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) claims on the integrity of the Aadhaar database at face value without any scrutiny.
- Risk of exclusion error: Using Aadhaar to clean the electoral rolls involved the risk of disenfranchisement, especially of the marginalised communities.
- It is to be noted that there is ample publicly documented evidence of large-scale exclusion in PDS and welfare disbursal due to Aadhaar.
[4] Conflict of interest
- UIDAI is under government control: Maintenance of the voters’ lists is a primary responsibility of the ECI, which is an independent constitutional body, whereas Aadhaar is a government instrument and UIDAI is under government control.
- Since the ECI has no control on either enrolment or deduplication in Aadhaar, it appears inappropriate — and a potential conflict of interest — to use Aadhaar for electoral rolls.
- In particular, since Aadhaar is directly used for disbursal of welfare and direct benefit transfers, linking it with voter ID may provide a direct method for the government to influence and manipulate voters.
[5] Risk of profiling and targeting of voters
- Aadhaar is a ubiquitous ID that is used in a variety of applications.
- Linking it with the voter ID will open up avenues for profiling and targeting of voters.
- No audit for purpose limitation: This is of particular concern because neither the UIDAI nor the ECI have publicly audited architectures for purpose limitation and protection against insider attacks.
- While profiling using public data is not illegal according to current laws, both the electorate and Parliament need to clearly understand the risks of such profiling.
- It is far easier to win elections through digital analysis of electoral rolls than through attacking the electronic voting process, especially when election results are available at booth-level granularity
- Both privacy and integrity of the electoral rolls are of paramount importance in the digital age, and the clear tension between the two makes the problem challenging.
Way forward
- Use of cryptography: The RER of 1960 clearly opted for transparency as a means to the integrity of the electoral rolls, thereby ensuring that all additions and deletions can be publicly audited.
- However, with the possibility of digital processing of electoral data, the risks associated with such complete transparency have increased manifold.
- Yet, there are several modern techniques from cryptography and computer science that may help mitigate the risks by enabling both privacy and public auditability.
Consider the question “The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 enable the linking of electoral rolls with the Aadhaar ecosystem. What are the objectives of such linking and concerns raised against it?”
Conclusion
An electoral reforms bill at the onset of 2022 needed to explore and address these issues head-on.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 370
Mains level: Paper 2- J and K issue
Context
The article deal with the impact of the passage of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019 on Ladakh’s autonomy or participatory democracy.
What has changed?
- Hill Councils: The Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh and Kargil read along with the framework of J&K’s special status and its bicameral legislative system gave Ladakh autonomy and participatory democracy.
- The Hill Councils had the powers over land in Ladakh while the majority of the bigger concerns regarding land remained protected under Article 370 and J&K’s robust land protection laws.
- Power to recruit the officers: Gazetted officers were recruited through the State Public Service Commission.
- The District Service Selection Board made recruitments at the district level.
- But today, there is no Public Service Commission in Ladakh and the Hill Councils’ power to make recruitments at the district level has also been affected by the Lieutenant Governor (LG)’s presence.
- No law to protect the jobs: Technically, there also exists no law in Ladakh now that protects the land or even the jobs.
- Loss of representation: the Reorganisation Act has taken away the six seats of the Members of Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council and wakened the functioning of the Hill Councils.
- The only elected representation from Ladakh outside of Ladakh is a lone MP.
Conclusion
Steps need to be taken to address the issues related to the lack of representation in Ladakh in the wake of the passage of the Reorganisation Act of 2019.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India's relations with Central Asian countries
Context
The government is inviting the leaders of the five Central Asian countries — Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan — as guests for Republic Day on January 26.
Significance of Central Asian region for India
- Return of Taliban in Afghanistan: The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has made Central Asia a region where great contestations for influence are unfolding.
- There is a growing awareness that for leveraging influence in Kabul and harvesting that influence in the form of material gains, a firm footing in Central Asia is a prerequisite.
- Economic dimension: Given the vast untapped mineral wealth of the region encompassing the five Central Asian countries and Afghanistan — estimated to be worth a few trillion dollars — there is a significant economic dimension to the unfolding saga.
- Geopolitical angle: Washington hopes to create in Central Asia a vector of its Indo-Pacific strategy to contain China and Russia. At the same time, governments in Moscow and Beijing are circling the wagons.
Suggestions for India
- India needs to work on an intricate network of relationships with the regional states while remaining mindful of the “big picture”.
- Delhi’s non-aligned mindset needs to be turned into a strategic asset to navigate its long-term interests.
- India’s membership of the BRICS and SCO will help.
- Cooperation of Russia and China: The deepening of the traditional Indo-Russian mutual understanding has injected dynamism into Delhi’s regional strategy on the whole.
- It is bound to have a calming effect on India’s tensions with China.
- Delhi cannot have an effective Central Asia strategy without the cooperation of these two big powers.
- Regional connectivity: India can use the card of regional connectivity to stimulate partnerships.
- The time may have come to reopen the files on the TAPI and IPI gas pipeline projects. Both involve Pakistan.
- Normalisation of India-Russia ties: Russia is well-placed to act as guarantor and help build both these pipelines, while China too will see advantages in the normalisation of India-Pakistan ties.
New geoeconomic partnership
- Recently concluded third meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue in Delhi served a purpose to sensitise the Central Asian interlocutors that it attaches primacy to geoeconomics.
- But India will have a challenge on its hands to flesh out the “4Cs” concept that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar presented at the event — commerce, capacity enhancement, connectivity, and contact being the four pillars of a new geoeconomic partnership.
- The key areas are transit and transport, logistics network, regional and international transport corridors, free trade agreements, manufacturing industry and job creation.
- They ought to be front-loaded into India’s Central Asian strategy.
- Certainly, the EAEU integration processes must be speeded up.
Consider the question “With changing geopolitical scenario, India’s stake in Central Asia has drastically increased. In the context of this, examine India’s outreach efforts toward the region and the challenges it faces in it.”
Conclusion
A host of new possibilities open up if India’s initiative on Central Asia runs on a parallel track with an improvement in relations with China.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Rising inequality and its implications
Context
In the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic, evaluating the state of inequality serves as an eye-opener on the income/wealth divides prevailing across regions.
Income and wealth inequality in the world
- The top 10% of the global population share 52% of the total income, while the bottom half survives with a mere 8.5% of it.
- This leaves the 40% in the middle with 40% of the income.
- This distribution shows the tendency of a rising middle class with lower disparity in income, but it also shows that the status of the poor is worsening day by day.
- Inequality of wealth: In terms of wealth, the top 10% of the global population own 76% of the total wealth, while the bottom 50% share a mere 2%.
- Some additional features of this exposition of inequality also relate to imbalance of women’s share in income as well as the ecological inequities indicated by the differential carbon emission levels.
Factors responsible for rising inequality
[1] Absence of effective measures of redistribution
- Inequality varies across regions. It is moderate in Europe and sharp in Africa.
- The top 10% have an income share of 36% in Europe vis-à-vis the top 10% with a share of 58% of the total income in West Asia and North Africa.
- Measures for redistribution: This disparity shows that worsening inequalities are avoidable with appropriate measures in place.
[2] The absence of measures discouraging undue accumulation
- Kuznet’s curve not follower everywhere: While there is an argument in literature that inequalities are a manifestation of the average level of income, as explained by the Kuznets’ theory, the prevailing pattern across countries does not follow the same.
- Average income level is poor predictor of inequality: The average income levels seem to be poor predictors of the levels of inequality, with high-income countries such as the U.S. having higher levels of inequality as against countries such as Sweden, which have moderate levels of inequality.
- Similar contradictions are also seen when we contrast middle-income nations such as Brazil, India and China as against Malaysia and Uruguay.
- Hence, emerging inequalities are not necessarily an outcome of rising levels of income in the post-liberalisation era, but a depiction of poor redistributive policies towards discouragement of accumulation by governments with due sensitivity towards inequalities.
How inequality hurts government finances
- This prevailing pattern of wealth concentration and differential levels of income around the world has also resulted in rich nations having poor governments.
- Such a situation has two underpinnings: one, governments have a limited capacity to act on inequality aversion measures and two, private interests overshadow the distributional fairness of wealth.
Way forward
- Focus also needs to be placed on reducing disparities in capability domains like education and differential endowments (tangible and intangible) that have the potential to sustain inequalities.
Consider the question “How rising income and wealth inequality could harm us in various ways? What are the factors responsible for the rising inequality? Suggest the way forward.”
Conclusion
The rising levels of income and wealth need to be addresses by policy measures and reducing disparity in capacity domains.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Implications of Russia-West relations for India
Context
Thirty years ago this week, the Soviet Union collapsed — after seven decades of an expansive global role. Few countries have been as significant as Russia for modern India’s evolution.
Impact of Russian geopolitics on India’s worldviews
- Russia’s relations with the West have always had consequences for India’s international relations.
- India’s fear of a unipolar world dominated by the US: After the collapse of the USSR in December 1991, the loss of the long-standing Soviet ally left Delhi in fears of a unipolar world dominated by the US.
- These anxieties were accentuated by post-Soviet Russia’s quick embrace of the US and the West.
- However, by the turn of the millennium, relations between Russia and the West had begun to sour.
- That drew India once again closer to Russia.
- Russia’s growing closeness to China: Moscow also roped in Beijing to build a new coalition — the RIC — to promote a multipolar world that would limit the dangers of American hyperpower.
- Improvement in India-US relations: India’s fears of the unipolar moment turned out to be overblown and Delhi’s ties with Washington began to see rapid improvement since 2000.
- The upswing in India’s ties with America, however, coincided with a steady downturn in the relations between Russia and the US.
Tension between Russia and the West
- The continuous escalation of tensions between Russia and the West culminated in the last few weeks in Ukraine — at the heart of Europe.
- Moscow’s military mobilisation on the frontier with Ukraine — that was part of the Soviet Union until 1991 — raised alarm bells of a new war between the forces of Russia and the US-led European military alliance, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
- Last week, Russia presented several proposals for a new European security architecture.
- Moscow is calling for an end to NATO’s further eastward expansion.
- Moscow also wants NATO to rescind its earlier promise to make Ukraine and Georgia — two former Soviet Republics — members of the military alliance.
Major compromises between US and Russia
- The resolution of US-Russian differences, however, involves some major compromises.
- Russia aware of the over reliance on China: While Russia has demonstrated that its interests can’t be simply ignored by the West, it also recognises the costs of a prolonged confrontation with the US and Europe and the dangers of relying solely on China to secure its geopolitical interests.
- Russia seeking accommodation with US and Europe: While Moscow is unlikely to abandon the partnership with China, there is no doubt that an accommodation with America and Europe is a high priority for Russia.
- US to focus on China challenge: The US, which is now focused on the China challenge, appears interested in easing the conflict with Russia.
- Despite its extraordinary military resources, Washington can’t afford to fight in both Asia (with China) and Europe (with Russia).
Implications for India
- Role of ideological sentiment: While coping with the complex dynamic of Russia’s relations with the West has been an enduring element of independent India’s foreign policy, Delhi’s thinking on Russia has too often been coloured by ideological sentiment.
- In Delhi, the tendency is to over-determine Russia’s contradictions with the West.
- It is not Russia’s national destiny to forever confront the West.
- Russia’s current problems with the West are not about ideological principles.
- It is about the terms of an honourable accommodation.
- Prior to the 1917 revolution, Russia was a leading part of the European great power system.
- Delhi can’t influence the new effort to build a mutually acceptable security order in Europe, but it can welcome and support it.
- Role of Asian geopolitics: That the pressure for this attempted reset in Russia’s relations with the West is coming from Asian geopolitics is of some significance.
- A reconciliation between Russia and the West will make it a lot easier for India to manage its own security challenges.
Conclusion
Delhi knows that stabilising the Asian balance of power will be difficult without a measure of US-Russian cooperation in Europe. If Moscow — at odds with the West in the last two decades — deepens its current close alignment with Beijing, it will be a lot harder to prevent Chinese dominance over Asia.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Age marriage of women issue
Context
The announcement of a cabinet decision to raise the age at marriage for women from 18 to 21 years marks the fruition of a plan that was first revealed almost two years ago when a Task Force was set up for the purpose.
Why the age of marriage of women matters
- Age of marriage has bearing on maternal mortality rates, fertility levels, nutrition of mother and child, sex ratios, and, on a different register, education and employment opportunities for women.
- It is also argued that other factors — such as poverty and health services — were far more effective as levers for improving women’s and children’s health and nutritional status.
Issues with the decision
[1] Role of poverty neglected
- If women who marry at higher ages seem to have better health and nutrition indicators, this is not caused by their marrying later than others — it is because women from better-off groups tend to marry at higher ages.
- Conversely, the health indicators of poorer women do not change just because they marry at a higher age.
- An illustration of this truth is found in the National Family Health Survey (IV) data, which show that levels of anaemia — which is the highest cause of maternal mortality in India and one of our worst statistics — show no change even at ages of marriage up to 25 years, once we control for other factors.
- World Bank study finds no impact on women: Population control was at the heart of the 1978 amendment to the Sarda Act of 1929.
- Moreover, reducing fertility rates globally by banning marriage before the age of 18 years is very much on the agenda of international agencies to this very day.
- A major multi-country study undertaken by the World Bank in 2017 estimated that “savings” of no less than $5 trillion would accrue if marriage before the age of 18 was eliminated.
- But such savings would be mostly due to reductions in fertility and consequent reductions in public health investments due to fewer births.
- The same study saw no significant gains from raised age of marriage for women’s decision making, for lowering the levels of violence they face, or helping them find employment.
- Restriction on the right of an adult woman: Globally, the age of 18 is widely regarded as the age of adulthood.
- It is also viewed as an upper limit in terms of the physical and reproductive maturity of women, as well as the age of majority by child rights conventions to which India is a signatory.
- Thus, the proposed move will restrict the rights of already adult women, an issue for legal experts to debate.
- Law is meant to set minimum age not the right age: Equally important is the crucial slippage in the arguments made on behalf of the government from the minimum age at marriage to the right age at marriage.
- The minimum age is obviously a floor, not a standard or desirable norm.
- Laws are meant to set minimum levels, a threshold for triggering legal or penal action, because of the harm that may be done.
Way forward: Address issues that drive empowerment
- Going by the NFHS 4 data (2015-16), more than half — 56 per cent — of women in the age group 20-24 years marry before the age of 21 years.
- The problem is that the real reasons that drive empowerment are not being addressed, at least not adequately.
- Educational attainments have improved enormously in recent years.
- But the shocking fact (evident in all major data sets) is that decline in early marriages has been accompanied by a fall in women’s employment rates, that persisted even during the 1990s boom.
- Paradoxical outcomes: The proportion of women not in paid work increases at higher ages of marriage!
- Complex paradoxes like these are the hallmark of our society.
- They cannot be addressed by a legal fix, particularly one that will be very hard to implement.
Consider the question “How the age of marriage of women is connected with the issue of women empowerment? What are the concerns with increasing it to 21 years? Suggest the way forward.“
Conclusion
Instead of criminalising our youth, the government must take concrete steps to really empower women. If they are truly in charge of their own lives — through affordable education, meaningful and decent employment opportunities — they will be able to make better decisions about whether, when and whom to marry.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MSP
Mains level: Paper 3- Challenges in legal backing to MSP
Context
Many political parties are demanding to make the minimum support prices (MSP) a legal instrument.
Background of MSP
- MSP regime had its genesis in 1965 when India was hugely short of basic staples and living in a “ship-to-mouth” situation.
- Indicative price: It was an indicative price (not a legal price) and procurement of rice and wheat was done to support farmers when they were adopting new seeds (HYV technology) and domestic procurement was to feed the PDS.
- The government declares MSP for 23 crops: Seven cereals (paddy, wheat, maize, bajra, sorghum, ragi and barley), five pulses (tur, moong, chana, urad and masur), seven oilseeds (soybean, groundnut, rapeseed-mustard, sesamum, safflower, sunflower and nigerseed) and four commercial crops (sugarcane, cotton, jute and copra).
Need to rethink procurement policy
- But now with granaries overflowing with rice and wheat, there is a need to rethink and redesign the procurement policy.
- In the crop year 2020-21, about 60 million metric tonnes (MMTs) of rice and 43 MMTs of wheat were procured by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and NAFED procured about 0.66 MMTs of pulses.
The increasing cost of PDS
- The main procurement by the government happens largely for rice and wheat to feed the public distribution system (PDS).
- The PDS issue prices of rice and wheat are subsidised by more than 90 per cent of their economic cost to the government.
- In 2020-21, the food subsidy bill was almost 30 per cent of the net tax revenue of the central government, reflecting clearly a huge consumer-bias in the system.
- Way forward: Unless this PDS is reformed either by restricting this to say the bottom 30 per cent of the population, or raising the issue prices to say half the economic cost of rice and wheat, giving a better deal to farmers is likely to blow up the fiscal position of the central government.
The cost of legal MSP
- Assuming that only 10 per cent of the production of remaining crops (excluding sugarcane) is procured, it will cost the government about Rs 5.4 lakh crore annually to procure these other MSP crops.
- This cost is estimated on the basis of economic costs of operation that are usually about 30 per cent higher than the MSP (in case of rice and wheat it is 40 per cent).
- But it appears that despite this, market prices may stay below MSP, especially during the harvest time.
- It also raises the question why only these MSP crops, why not other agri-produce, say milk, the value of which is more than the value of rice, wheat and sugarcane combined.
Way forward
- PDP: One may use price deficiency payments (PDP), implying that the government pays to farmers the gap between the market price and MSP, whenever market prices are below MSP.
- Income support instead of price support: It may be better to use an income policy on a per hectare basis to directly transfer money into farmers’ accounts without distorting markets through higher MSPs or PDPs.
Consider the question “What are the challenges in providing the legal backing to the Minimum Support Price to the agriculture produce? Suggest the way forward.”
Conclusion
There is no easy substitute to “getting the markets right”. Government need to apply an innovative approach to solve the conundrum of the MSP.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Accessibility Standards for law enforcement
Context
The Draft Accessibility Standards/Guidelines recently released by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for built infrastructure under its purview (police stations, prisons and disaster mitigation centres) and services associated with them assume significance.
What are the provisions under the Standards?
- Models for police stations: The Standards set out models for building new police stations as well as improving upon existing police stations and prisons that are modern, gender sensitive and accessible.
- The Standards speak to the need to make the websites and institutional social networks of police stations accessible, ensuring that persons with disabilities accused of committing any crimes are treated appropriately, having disabled-friendly entrances to police stations and disabled-friendly toilets.
- Inclusive police force: the Standards state that the police staff on civil duty could be persons with disabilities.
- Equal protection during natural disasters: Acknowledging that persons with disabilities must receive equal protection as others in such situations, the Standards provide direction on disability inclusion in disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts.
- They also stress on disability inclusive training for persons involved in disaster relief activities, data aggregation, use of information and communication technology (ICT) and enforcing accessible infrastructure models for schools, hospitals and shelters following the principle of universal design.
- Accessibility norm: The Standards introduce accessibility norms for services associated with police stations and prisons.
- These norms promote the use of ICTs to facilitate communication, development of police websites, app-based services for filing complaints, making enquiries, etc., as well as encouraging the use of sign language, communication systems such as Braille, images for persons with psycho-social disabilities, and other augmentative and alternative modes of communication.
Shortcomings of the Standards/norms
- Accessibility of signage not ensured: The Standards call for the deployment of directional signage regarding accessibility features in the MHA’s physical infrastructure as well as to indicate the location of accessible toilets.
- However, they do not require that such signage itself be accessible to the visually challenged, such as through auditory means.
- Certain accommodations merely recommendatory: The Standards characterise several reasonable accommodations that are necessary for the disabled as being merely recommendatory.
- These include having trained police personnel in every police station to assist persons with disabilities and placing beepers at all entrances to enable the visually challenged/blind to locate themselves.
- Lack of detail on human assistance: In the case of Patan Jamal Vali, the Court suggested connecting special educators and interpreters with police stations to operationalise the reasonable accommodations embodied in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.
- While the standards do require developing a mechanism to provide human assistance to the disabled such as sign language interpreters, they are short on specifics on this count.
- Lack of representation: Interestingly, the Standards state that the police staff on civil duty could be persons with disabilities.
- This is inconsistent with the Office Memorandum issued by the Department of Empowerment for Persons with Disabilities on August 18, 2021, according to which the Centre has exempted posts in the Indian Police Service; the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshdweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli Police Service; as well as the Indian Railway Protection Force Service from the mandated 4% reservation for persons with disabilities in government jobs.
Conclusion
In sum, the Standards, when enacted into law, will mark a huge step forward in making our law enforcement apparatus more disabled-friendly. Bolstering the Standards further, by incorporating the suggestions flowing from well- thought-out public comments, will take us closer to the aim of ensuring that India’s disabled citizens truly have the police they deserve.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Need for reforms in agriculture
Context
In the run-up to the repeal of the three farm laws, the potential cost of MSP to the taxpayers became a matter of debate.
Issue of MSP
- Large variation: Experts and agricultural economists quoted numbers about the cost of MPS.
- There is a large variation in the quoted numbers.
- The enormity of the variance in estimates is astounding.
- No consensus on the number of beneficiaries of MSP: There is also a dissonance between the NSSO data and the administrative data on the number of farmers who enjoy MSP.
- No consensus on a formula to calculate MSP: Further, there is no consensus on the formulae for the calculation of MSP.
Suggestions on land reforms
[1] Reduce high domestic prices
- That India is an agri-surplus country.
- That domestic prices of agri-commodities are often higher than in the international market and therefore, there is a need to bring them down.
- How to achieve cost reduction: Cost reduction can happen either by creating efficiencies by plugging leakages or, by cost-cutting — including reducing farmers’ margins.
- In the recently-reached understanding with the farmers, the government has agreed to constitute a committee on MSP.
- Hopefully, a formula can be arrived at by which costs of domestic agricultural produce can be reduced while ensuring a “remunerative price” for the farmers.
[2] Protecting landholdings
- There is also a need to protect landholdings.
- Farmers’ fears in this regard are not exaggerated.
- Under the erstwhile laws, orders of payment made by an SDM/Collector could be recovered as “arrears of land revenue”.
- While agricultural lands were protected from such recovery, non-agricultural (immovable and movable) assets appeared to be fair game.
- Further, circumstances such as sustenance and payment of debts could force a farmer to sell their agricultural landholdings.
- Large-scale loss of landholdings could lead to their consolidation in the hands of a few.
- This could have the impact of turning the clock back, reminiscent of the Zamindari system.
[3] Need to reconsider the dispute resolution mechanism
- The government should also reconsider the dispute resolution mechanism provided in the erstwhile laws.
- In an MSP driven regime, the government is likely to be a party in any potential dispute.
- Conflict of interest: There will be a direct conflict of interest since the SDM/Collector is an arm of the government.
- Land records are within the jurisdiction of the patwari and tehsildar, who report to the SDM/Collector.
- Fast track courts: It would be advisable to think in terms of fast-track courts, and remove the provision of recovery through arrears of land revenue.
- It would also be advisable to have only one dispute resolution mechanism for all farm laws.
[4] Avoid over-corporatisation without the creation of the requisite efficiencies
- We should not ask our farmers to brave corporatisation without levelling the playing field and enough jobs in the non-agricultural sector.
- Over-corporatisation without the creation of the requisite efficiencies could lead us to become heavily import-dependent, killing the benefits of the Green Revolution.
Conclusion
Perfunctory reforms and those that don’t work for all constituents — corporates as well as farmers — could have long-term deleterious effects for not only the agricultural sector, but the economy as a whole.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Independence of Election Commission
Context
The Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners were summoned by the PMO to attend a meeting with the Principal Secretary to the PM.
Why the meeting raises questions?
- The PMO summoning or “inviting” not just the CEC but the full bench is in violation of the Constitution, irrespective of how important or urgent the issue.
- Violation of the principle of distancing from executive: When a person is appointed as CEC or EC, that person has to resign from his executive post in order to adhere to important constitutional principle of distancing from the executive/government.
- The executive could appoint a person to these posts but could not order them, or remove me because of the constitutional scheme of things.
- Violation of independence: An independent ECI is a gift of the Constitution to the nation. Free and fair and credible elections are sine qua non of the EC.
- The Supreme Court has repeatedly stressed this point, calling it part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
- Violation of warrant of precedence: The CEC is very high in the warrant of precedence — ninth, while the PS to PM is 23rd.
- How can such a high constitutional functionary be summoned to attend a meeting with an officer, howsoever high and mighty?
- It raises suspicions: A meeting of the PS to the PM, formal or informal, online or in the PMO or ECI, just before elections raises unnecessary suspicions.
Conclusion
This incident is a transgression that should not happen again. The distance of an arm’s length in interactions between institutions envisaged in the Constitution is sacrosanct. It should not only be maintained but also “seen” to be maintained.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Types of subsidies
Mains level: Paper 3- MSP and challenges ahead at WTO
Context
Amid the demand for legal backing to MSP, the question remains about whether India can provide a legal guarantee violating its international law obligations enshrined in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO)?
Classification of subsidies under AoA: Trade distorting and non-trade distorting
- The objective of AoA: One of the central objectives of the AoA is to cut trade-distorting domestic support.
- Three categories: In this regard, the domestic subsidies are divided into three categories: ‘green box’, ‘blue box’ and ‘amber box’ measures.
- Non-trade distorting: ‘Green box’ subsidies (like income support to farmers de-coupled from production) and ‘blue box’ subsidies (like direct payments under production limiting programmes subject to certain conditions) are considered non-trade distorting.
- Countries can provide unlimited subsidies under these two categories.
- Trade-distorting subsidies: Price support provided in the form of procurement of crops at MSP is classified as a trade-distorting subsidy and falls under the ‘amber box’ measures, which are subject to certain limits.
So, how do countries measure ‘amber box’ support?
- Compute AMS: To measure ‘amber box’ support, WTO member countries are required to compute Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS).
- AMS is the total of product-specific support (price support to a particular crop) and non-product-specific support (fertilizer subsidy).
Understanding the de minimis limit
- Under Article 6.4(b) of the AoA, developing countries such as India are allowed to provide a de minimis level of product and non-product domestic subsidy.
- This de minimis limit is capped at 10% of the total value of production of the product, in case of a product-specific subsidy; and at 10% of the total value of a country’s agricultural production, in case of non-product subsidy.
- Subsidies breaching the de minimis cap are trade-distorting.
Possibility of India overshooting the de minimis limit
- Relation between MSP and AMS: The procurement at MSP, after comparing it with the fixed external reference price (ERP) — an average price based on the base years 1986-88 — has to be included in AMS.
- Widening gap between ERP and MSP: Since the fixed ERP has not been revised in the last several decades at the WTO, the difference between the MSP and fixed ERP has widened enormously due to inflation.
- According to the Centre for WTO Studies, India’s ERP for rice, in 1986-88, was $262.51/tonne and the MSP was less than this.
- However, India’s applied administered price for rice in 2015-16 stood at $323.06/tonne, much more than the 1986-88 ERP.
- Procuring all the 23 crops at MSP, as against the current practice of procuring largely rice and wheat, will result in India breaching the de minimis limit making it vulnerable to a legal challenge at the WTO.
- Even if the Government does not procure directly but mandates private parties to acquire at a price determined by the Government, as it happens in the case of sugarcane, the de minimis limit of 10% applies.
Way forward
- Peace clause: Although a permanent solution is nowhere in sight, the countries have agreed to a peace clause.
- The peace clause forbids bringing legal challenges against price support-based procurement for food security purposes even if it breaches the limit on domestic support.
- The peace clause is applicable only for programmes that were existing as of the date of the decision and are consistent with other requirements.
- India’s procurement for rice and wheat, even if it violates the de minimis limit, will enjoy legal immunity.
- However, India will not be able to employ the peace clause to defend procuring those crops that are not part of the food security programme (such as cotton, groundnut, sunflower seed).
- Move from MSP to income-based support: Arguably, India can move away from price-based support in the form of MSP to income-based support, which will not be trade-distorting under the AoA provided the income support is not linked to production.
- Supplement price-based support with income-based support: Alternatively, one can supplement price-based support (keeping the de minimis limit in mind) with an income-based support policy.
Conclusion
The Government needs to engage with the farmers and create an affable environment to convince them of other effective policy interventions, beyond MSP, that are fiscally prudent and WTO compatible.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Omicron variant
Mains level: Paper 2- Importance of data in dealing with pandemic
Context
Questions are being asked about India’s preparedness as the cases with the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus has been on the rise in the country.
Where does India stand?
[1] The Positives
- Addressing oxygen shortage: The extreme shortages of oxygen that we saw barely six months ago will hopefully not be a feature of a third wave.
- Vaccinated population: We have now vaccinated more than 50% of the adult population with both doses of vaccine, and approximately 85% have received one or two doses.
- Ramping up testing to deal with a spike should not require an increase in capacity.
- More vaccine doses: We have more vaccine doses than in May 2021 and the potential for oral antiviral therapy in the near future.
[2] The negatives
- Lack of data: An urgent and important one is the lack of publicly available data on the pandemic from Government sources, particularly in regard to testing, but also in terms of being able to correlate disease severity with age, prior medical conditions, locations and other variables.
- Data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India’s premier medical research agency, remains inaccessible.
- The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has not responded.
- The CoWIN data contains valuable information but it is of little value for future planning and prediction unless it can be tied to testing data and clinical information at the level of individuals.
- ICMR data not correlated to CoWIN platform data: The Indian Council of Medical Research holds data on every COVID-19 test conducted in India.
- However, these data are not correlated to the vaccine data in the CoWIN platform.
- Data with States is inaccessible: Data on hospitalisations, etc. are apparently available at the State level, but seem inaccessible.
What we can know from the data about pandemic
- Infer the probability of reinfection: If we knew that a person had tested positive on successive tests separated by, say four months or more, with a negative test in-between, that would suggest a reinfection.
- We could then infer the probability of such a reinfection.
- Probability of vaccine breakthrough infection: With information about testing and vaccination status, we could compute the probability of a vaccine breakthrough event.
- To know the efficacy of single vaccine dose: By checking to see whether the positive test happened after the first but before the second dose of vaccine, or after the second dose, the relative efficacy of such single vaccine doses at preventing disease could be derived.
- Effect of the vaccine on disease severity: By examining symptoms reported after a vaccine breakthrough event, we could understand the extent to which vaccines reduce disease severity.
- Impact of new variant: Add to this a layer of sequence information, and we could study the impact of new variants.
Role of the volunteer organisation
- The most trustworthy and granular data on cases in India have resulted from the remarkable and public-spirited work of a volunteer organisation, Covid19India.org.
- Their work has now been taken over by several other voluntary groups, all operating on the same broad principles of data accessibility: covid19bharat.org, incovid19.org and covid19tracker.in.
Way forward
- Commitment towards data accessibility: We need to stress on data availability because this is the one area where a swift realignment is possible.
- The more widely data are shared, the greater the likelihood of integration of the rapidly shifting scientific frontier with clinical practice.
- Learning from the experience of South Africa: With the advantages of a relatively high-quality surveillance system among low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) countries, bolstered by a commitment towards transparency and data accessibility, South Africa’s rapid sharing allowed the world to prepare swiftly for the appearance of the highly mutated Omicron variant.
- It is clear that pre-emptive decisions on vaccination and other measures could be made faster and better if more integrated data were available.
Consider the question “Why availability and accessibility of data is important in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic? What are the challenges facing health data accessibility in India?”
Conclusion
Now, more than ever before is the time for us to urgently reassess our attitude towards data for public health purposes and the role of national health agencies in sharing data, generated with public funds, with scientists in India and across the world.
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