THE ART & CULTURE

1. A.P. GOVT. BANS 100-YEAR-OLD ‘CHINTAMANI PADYA NATAKAM’

THE CONTEXT: The Andhra Pradesh government has brought the curtains down on the popular ‘Chintamani Padya Natakam’, which has enthralled people for almost 100 years.

THE EXPLANATION: 

• Telugu play writer Mahakavi Kallakuri Narayana Rao who was also a social reformer, cinematographer, and nationalist wrote the play Chintamani around 100 years ago, which was very popular on stage. It was also made into a movie twice in Telugu once in 1933 & in 1956 with NT Rama Rao, Bhanumathi, and Jamuna in the lead roles.
• The Arya Vaishyas or baniya community in Andhra have been portrayed in such a manner and they have been up in arms against the play for a long time. The issue had cropped during the centenary celebrations of the play which was held in Eluru of West Godavari.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2. INDIA EXTENDS ANOTHER $500 MILLION LOC TO SRI LANKA

THE CONTEXT: India extended a $500 million-Line of Credit (LOC) to Sri Lanka for urgent fuel imports, days after providing $900 million relief to the island nation facing one of its worst economic downturns.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the Ministry of External affairs the emergency assistance Sri Lanka had sought from India to tide over its dollar crunch leading to a shortage of essentials, including fuel, medicines, and certain food supplies.
• These measures are in line with India’s commitment to stand with Sri Lanka, contribute to Sri Lanka’s economic growth and impart greater momentum to bilateral economic and commercial partnership.”
• The LoC from India coincides with Sri Lanka’s central bank servicing a sovereign bond for $500 million, and also with reports on likely power outages owing to a shortage of fuel supply amid the persisting dollar crisis.

What is the current economic situation in Sri Lanka?

• Poor state of tourism industry: The tourism industry, which represents over 10% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and brings in foreign exchange, has been hit hard by the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019 and coronavirus pandemic.
• Shortage of forex reserves: As a result, forex reserves have dropped from over $7.5 billion in 2019 to around $2.8 billion in July 2021.
• Depreciation of currency: The printing of Rs. 800 billion by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka over the last 18 months to ease the economic crisis has increased liquidity in the economy. But this infusion of money, and the consequent increase in demand without a corresponding increase in supply, has led to a sharp spike in inflation. This in turn has devalued the currency, made imports costlier, added to the debt, and put the forex reserves under more pressure. So, the value of the Sri Lankan rupee has depreciated by around 8% in 2021.
• Rise in price of food items: It has to be noted that the country depends heavily on imports to meet even its basic food supplies. So the price of food items has risen in tandem with the depreciating rupee. The government’s ban on the use of chemical fertilizers in farming has further aggravated the crisis by dampening agricultural production.
• High debt: Its public debt-to-GDP ratio was at 109.7% in 2020, and its gross financing needs to remain high at 18% of GDP, higher than most of its emerging economy peers. More than $2.7 billion of foreign currency debt will be due in the next two years.

3. THE HOUTHI ATTACK ON THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

THE CONTEXT: A suspected drone attack in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), caused multiple explosions in which three people were killed —two Indians and one Pakistani.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The Shia Houthi rebels of Yemen, who have been controlling the northern parts of the country, including the capital Sana’a, for almost seven years, have claimed responsibility for the attack.
• While the UAE hasn’t confirmed the Houthi claims. Also the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting the Houthis in Yemen, launched air strikes on Sana’a.

Who are the Houthis?

Founded in the 1990s by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, a member of Yemen’s Shia majority, the Houthi movement has a pretty straight forward slogan or sarkha: “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam.” After Yemeni soldiers killed Hussein in 2004, his brother Abdul Malik took over.

How did Saudi Arabia get involved?

The rise of the Houthis sent alarm bells ringing across Sunni Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition — backed by the US, UK and France — then launched an air campaign in Yemen, with the aim of defeating the rebel group. What the coalition thought would take only a few weeks has stretched on for seven years, growing into a full-blown civil war.

4. INDONESIA RELOCATE CAPITAL TO BORNEO

THE CONTEXT: Indonesia’s parliament has approved a bill to relocate the nation’s capital from Jakarta to a jungled area of Kalimantan on Borneo Island.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The new centre will be called “Nusantara”, a Javanese name for the Indonesian archipelago, also “the new capital has a central function and is a symbol of the identity of the nation, as well as a new centre of economic gravity,”
• Plans to relocate the government from Jakarta, a bustling megacity of 10 million people that suffers from chronic congestion, floods and air pollution, have been floated by multiple presidents, but none have made it this far.
• Southeast Asia’s largest economy has envisioned the newcapital as a low-carbon “superhub” that will support pharmaceutical, health and technology sectors and promote sustainable growth beyond Java island.
• But critics say the law was rushed through with limited public consultation and environmental consideration.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

5. THE DEVAS-ANTRIX DEAL

THE CONTEXT: The Supreme Court has upheld the liquidation of Devas, whose foreign investors continue to fight for compensation following the cancelled 2005 satellite deal with Antrix.

THE EXPLANATION:

• A 2005 satellite deal between Antrix Corporation — the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) – and Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd, a start-up headquartered in Bengaluru, is at the heart of a global legal tussle between the Indian government and foreign investors in Devas.
• The tussle is a fallout of the cancellation of the deal in 2011 by the then UPA government citing requirement of satellite spectrum allotted to Devas for security purposes.

What was the Devas-Antrix deal?

• They signed an “Agreement for the Lease of Space Segment Capacity on ISRO/Antrix S-band spacecraft by Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd” on January 28, 2005, a month after Devas was incorporated in Bengaluru in December 2004 by two former ISRO employees.
• Under the deal, ISRO would lease to Devas two communication satellites (GSAT-6 and 6A) for 12 years for Rs 167 crore. Devas would provide multimedia services to mobile platforms in India using S-band transponders on the satellites, with ISRO leasing 70 MHz of S-band spectrum.
• The deal progressed smoothly for six years before it was annulled by the UPA government on February 25, 2011, following a Cabinet Committee on Security decision of February 17 to terminate the agreement to use the S-band for security purposes. The government decision was taken in the midst of the 2G scam and allegations that the Devas deal involved the handing over of communication spectrum valued at nearly Rs 2 lakh crore for a pittance.

What is the current Issue?

• After the NDA government came to power in 2014, the CBI was asked to investigate the 2005 deal. In August 2016, the CBI filed a chargesheet against eight officials from Devas, ISRO and Antrix linked to the deal for “being party to a criminal conspiracy with an intent to cause undue gain to themselves or others by abusing official positions”.
• Among the eight is former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair and former Antrix executive director K R Sridharamurthi. The CBI has charged the accused of causing a loss of approximately Rs 578 crore to the government through the deal.
• The ED filed a chargesheet in 2018 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against a former managing director of Antrix and five Devas officials, stating that Devas transferred 85% of its Rs 579 crore foreign funding to the US under various claims.

What led to the liquidation?

Antrix filed a plea in the National Company Law Tribunal in January 2021 for liquidation of Devas in India, which it said was incorporated in a fraudulent manner. The NCLT order held that the start-up was “incorporated in a fraudulent manner and for unlawful purposes”.

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

6. WEB 3.0 NEXT PHASE OF INTERNET

THE CONTEXT: Web 3.0 is the potential next phase of the internet wherein the internet will be decentralized and run on blockchain technology.

THE EXPLANATION:

THE CONCEPT OF WEB 3.0:

It is used to describe a potential next phase of the internet, created quite a buzz in 2021. The model, a decentralized internet to be run on blockchain technology, would be different from the versions in use, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. In web3, users will have ownership stakes in platforms and applications unlike now where tech giants control the platforms.

EARLIER VERSIONS

• Web 1.0 was mostly static where users would go to a website and read and interact with static information; The differentiating characteristic of Web 2.0, which we use now, is that users can create content.
• In Web 2.0, most of the data in the internet and the internet traffic are owned or handled by a few large companies creating issues of data privacy, data security and abuse of data. Web3 offers a solution to these problems.

What are some of the concerns?

In Web 2.0, most of the data on the internet and the internet traffic are owned or handled by very few behemoth companies. This has created issues related to data privacy, data security and abuse of such data. It is in this context that the buzz around Web3 is significant.

THE INTERNAL SECURITY

7. THE ‘HYBRID TERRORISTS’ IN JK

THE CONTEXT: Jammu and Kashmir Police that biggest challenge for security forces in the union territory are going to be hybrid terrorists. Hybrid terrorists are those who are not listed with the security forces and are only brought in by terror groups just once or twice to carry out terrorist attacks.

THE EXPLANATION:

According to JK Police, there are two biggest challenges with regard to terrorism, they are

1. Hybrid Terrorism
2. Narco-terrorism

Hybrid Terrorism:

In 2021, Kashmir valley saw dozens of attacks soft targets like civilians, policemen (on leave), political workers and people from minority communities. Security forces are now focussing on identification of such hybrid terrorists.

Narco Terrorism:

The security forces are facing in the Kashmir Valley is narco-terror. Tons of narcotics have been recovered by security forces in various districts of the Kashmir valley and security agencies believe that the money from these drugs is being used by the terror outfits. The arms and ammunition are mostly bought from money generated through drug trafficking. These drugs are sold in different parts of the country.

Kashmir is very near to Golden Crescent 

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION OF THE DAY 19^TH JANUARY 2022

Q1. Consider the following statements about National Commission for Women:

1. It is neither constitutional nor a statutory body.
2. It consists of one chairman and other five members.
3. They are nominated by the central government.

Which of the statement given above is/are correct?

               a) 1 and 2 only

b) 2 and 3 only

c) 3 only

d) 1, 2 and 3

ANSWER FOR 18^TH JANUARY 2022.

Answer: a)

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Kathak is a prominent ancient Indian classical dance and is thought

to have started from the wandering bards of North India (Uttar Pradesh) known as Kathakars, meaning storytellers.

• Statement 2 is correct: The foundations of Kathak are rooted in Natya Shastra, an ancient

Sanskrit text written by Bharata Muni.

• Statement 3 is correct: Kathakars convey stories through rhythmic foot movements, hand

gestures, facial appearances and eye work.

THE CONTEXT: The fifth annual democracy report by Sweden’s V-Dem Institute, titled ‘Autocratisation goes viral’, has downgraded India from “the world’s largest democracy” to an “electoral autocracy”.V-Dem’s findings are consistent with other contemporary international inferences on the quality of democracy prevailing in India: Freedom House designated India to be “partly free” recently; India was described as a “flawed democracy” in the latest Democracy Index published by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

INDIA: A CAPTURED DEMOCRACY

The current crisis of Indian democracy should be seen as the outcome of a “democracy capture”.  In democratic societies, the common good should prevail over individual interests. The state’s role is to design and implement public policies that enhance and improve the rights of its citizens. If the opposite is the case, the state is said to have been ‘captured’. A state that grants privileges to a few over the majority of the population is one in which public policies reduce or limit the rights of its citizens.

The current crisis is different from the Emergency

• Emergency was an exception to a norm; what we now have is a different norm.
• Emergency needed a formal legal declaration. Capturing democracy does not.
• The Emergency had a beginning and was, at least on paper, required to have an end. Democracy capture has a beginning, but not necessarily an end.
• Beyond Kashmir, there has been no mass arrest of politicians, and many more state governments are run by political parties that do not rule in Delhi.

This is ‘democracy capture’ as democracy is both the object and the subject of this capture. The apparatus being seized is democracy. And the means being deployed for this capture are also democratic. The formal procedures of democracy have been used to subvert the substance of democracy. This democracy capture could not have happened without some structural weaknesses within the Indian democracy. Therefore, one must focus on the conditions that made this kind of capture possible.

GOVERNMENT TO BLAME

The rankings blame the government for the backsliding of democracy.  They say there has been increased pressure on human rights groups, intimidation of journalists and activists, and a spate of attacks, especially against Muslims under the present regime. This has led to a deterioration of political and civil liberties in the country.

• V-Dem said the “diminishing of freedom of expression, the media, and civil society have gone the furthest” and that far as censorship goes India was “as autocratic as Pakistan and worse than its neighbours Bangladesh and Nepal”.
• Freedom House said civil liberties have been in decline since 2014, and that India’s “fall from the upper ranks of free nations” could have a more damaging effect on the world’s democratic standards.
• And The Democracy Index said the “democratic backsliding” by authorities and “crackdowns” on civil liberties had led to a decline in India’s rankings. It said government policies had “fomented anti-Muslim feeling and religious strife and damaged the political fabric of the country”.

THE WORLD MOVES TOWARDS AUTOCRATISATION

Going by rankings, democracy, despite its enduring appeal, appears to be in trouble all over the world. The erosion of freedoms in India seems to be consistent with the retreat of liberal democracies around the world. According to V-Dem, electoral autocracies are now present in 87 states that are home to 68% of the global population.

• In the 2020 Democracy Index, only 75 of the 167 countries and territories covered by the model – or 44.9% – are considered to be democracies.
• Freedom House estimates less than 20% of the world’s population now lives in a free country, the smallest proportion since 1995.
• According to V-Dem Liberal democracies are diminishing, and are home to only 14% of the people.
• In 2020, two-thirds of countries imposed restrictions on the media and a third of countries have emergency measures without an expiry date.

But the breakdown of democracy in established cases is concerning. India is the latest example of this following Hungary and Turkey. The Indian case stands out given the size of its population and past record as a successful model of multi-ethnic democracy

Third-wave

• Unlike previous waves, the present wave mainly affects democracies.
• Traditional methods of dramatic and blatant military coups (1^st wave) and election fraud (2^nd wave) have been replaced with legal, informal and discrete power transfers (3^rd wave).

Like for authoritarianism

• Surveys have reported that Indians have demonstrated both majoritarian and authoritarian impulses for some years now and younger people do not have particularly more progressive beliefs.
• In the latest round (2010-2014) of the World Values Survey, India along with Pakistan and Russia featured below the global average on the importance accorded to democracy.
• The latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey, conducted in early 2018, found that a majority of Indians were satisfied with the way democracy was working.

INDIA’S AUTOCATISATION PROCESS

Autocratisation typically follows a similar pattern across very different contexts. It begins with ruling governments attacking the media and civil society, followed by polarisation of the society by disrespecting opponents and spreading false information and culminates in elections and other formal institutions being undermined. Leaders in some constitutional democracies have used use constitutionalism and democracy to destroy both. Electoral mandates plus constitutional and legal changes are used for this. They support elections and use their electoral victories to legitimize their legal reforms. They use constitutional change for achieving the unified domination of all of the institutions of the state. India follows the pattern observed in other cases of recent democratic breakdown, the typical pattern for countries in the ‘Third Wave’. India is among the countries leading the ‘third wave of automatisation,

EVIDENCE FROM THE REPORTS

INDIA IS NOW ‘PARTLY FREE’ IN FREEDOM HOUSE’SREPORT

Freedom in the World report has downgraded India’s status from a ‘Free’ country to a ‘Partly Free’ country. The report noted a “multiyear pattern” as it attributed the downgrade — from a score of 71 in 2019 and 75 in 2018 to 67 in 2020. It said criminal charges were filed against journalists, students, and others under “colonial-era sedition laws” and the Information Technology (IT) Act in response to “speech perceived as critical of the government, notably including expressions of opposition to the new citizenship legislation and discussion of the official response to the COVID-19 pandemic”.

Discrimination’ against Muslims

• A number of Hindu nationalist organizations and some media outlets promote anti-Muslim views, which the government has been accused of encouraging.
• The implementation of the CAA and the government’s intention for an NRC threatened to disenfranchise Muslim voters.
• The report also mentioned cow vigilantism.

Lack of freedom’ in institutions

• Freedoms of various institutions such as the Election Commission of India and the Supreme Court have been called into question.
• The amendment of the Right to Information Act potentially exposed the commissioners to political pressure.

Freedom of media and expression

• The report said the authorities have used security, defamation, sedition, and hate speech laws, as well as contempt of court charges, to quiet critical voices in the media which has exacerbated self-censorship.
• It also claimed that academic freedom has declined and that academics, professors and students are intimidated.

How reliable are these rankings?

Global exercises.

• Freedom House’s latest global report on political rights and civil liberties covers developments in 195 countries and 15 territories.
• V-Dem claims to produce the largest global dataset on democracy involving 202 countries from 1789 to 2020.
• The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index gives a snapshot on the health of democracy in 165 countries and two territories.

Rules and parameters

• V-Dem says it measures “hundreds of different attributes of democracy” with almost 30 million data points, involving more than 3,500 scholars and country experts.
• The Economist’s Democracy Index is based on measuring electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties”.
• And Freedom House says it uses a two-tiered system consisting of scores and status – a country is awarded points for each of its political rights and civil liberties indicators.

Subjectivity

• Such rankings, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania, are the result of quantitative assessments – like the distribution of seats in the national legislature among political parties – and qualitative judgements, like evaluating whether safeguards against corruption are effective.
• Aggregating these indicators into an index is a subjective exercise, depending on the judgements of experts to identify metrics to include and how to weigh each appropriately.
• Most rankings do not impose a single definition of democracy – experts agree that an “electoral democracy” is really the bare minimum.

INDIA IS NOW AN ‘ELECTORAL AUTOCRACY’ IN V-DEM’S REPORT

India registered a 23-percentage point drop on its 0-to-1 Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) scale, which aims to capture electoral and liberal aspects of democracy.

With this slide, India has moved from the top 50% of the 180 countries analyzed by V Dem to the bottom 50%. In last year’s report, India was last among the 90 countries in the top 50%. This year, it is ranked 97th, falling into the bottom 50%.

Elections

• The autonomy of the ECI saw a severe depreciation since around 2013 and signals the decline in the quality of critical formal institutions.
• The overall freedom and fairness of elections also were hard hit, with the 2019 elections, hastening a downgrading to an electoral autocracy.

Freedom of expression

• By 2020, censorship efforts are becoming routine and no longer even restricted to sensitive (to the government) issues. India is, in this aspect, now as autocratic as is Pakistan, and worse than both its neighbours Bangladesh and Nepal.
• In general, the government has used laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism to silence critics. For example, over 7,000 people have been charged with sedition after 2014 and most of the accused are critics of the ruling party.
• The law on defamation has been used frequently to silence journalists and news outlets that take exception to policies of the government.

Civil Society

• Constraints have been also placed on civil society. The UAPA, 1967, amended in August 2019, is being used to harass and imprison political opponents, as well as people mobilizing to protest government policies and to silence dissent in academia.
• The government has increasingly used the FCRA to restrict the entry, exit, and functioning of Civil Society Organisations.

INDIA’S SLIDE IN OTHER INDICES WHICH MONITOR DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS

India’s slide in these reports only mirrors its decline in indices compiled by independent bodies which monitor democratic freedoms over the past few years.

• In March 2020, Reports Without Borders (RSF) placed India alongside China, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in a list of press freedom’s “worst digital predators”. The list flags countries where companies and government agencies use “digital technology to spy on and harass journalists”.
• In April 2020, the US government’s Religious Freedom Monitor recommended that the country’s state department should include India in the list of “countries of special concern”. It noted that religious freedom had improved globally but singled out India for seeing a “sharp downward turn”.
• Again in April, India was ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s Press Freedom Index, sliding two ranks down. It criticized the ‘longest electronic curfew’ in history in Kashmir and highlighted that ‘state troll armies’ in the country use the ‘weapon of disinformation on social media.
• The country also fell 26 places to rank 105th among 162 countries and territories on a global economic freedom index released by the Fraser Institute in Canada in September 2020.
• Finally, in December 2020, India was ranked 111th out of 162 countries in the Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index 2020. Between the 2019 and 2020 indices, the country plummeted 17 spots.

With the Centre giving the nod to the new IT Rules, which give the government sweeping powers, future reports could see India’s media freedom being downgraded further.

INDIA IS A “FLAWED DEMOCRACY” IN EIU’S ‘DEMOCRACY IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH?’REPORT

India has fallen two places to 53rd in the 2020 Democracy Index report released by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The country was ranked 51st in 2019, with an overall score of 6.9 which has dropped down to 6.61. While India’s democratic credibility and scores suffered this year, regional neighbours, namely, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Pakistan saw marginal improvement.

Religious strife

• It cites the CAA, as the primary cause that fuelled protests in the country for months.
• The ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya is the second significant event that the report cites to explain the fall in India’s position as a vibrant democracy

Lockdown

• The government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and a crackdown on voices that criticized its measures.
• According to media reports, 55 Indian journalists were threatened, arrested, and booked by the Centre and state governments for their reporting on COVID-19.

HOW HAS INDIA’S GOVERNMENT REACTED?

The flurry of downgrades has cast a shadow on the global image of India’s democracy. The government has said that the ‘Freedom in the World’ report is “misleading, incorrect and misplaced”. The government also issued a point-by-point rebuttal. In parliament, the chairman of the upper house, Venkaiah Naidu, did not allow an opposition MP to pose a question related to the V-Dem report.

WHAT COULD BE A PROBABLE IMPACT ON INDIA?

1. A) Foreign Policy

The biggest impact of these developments is, of course, internal. But the impact is also external. India has been accorded great respect in the world but the perceptions are now changing. Other countries’ view of India is influenced by calculations and hopes that it can help counter Chinese expansionism in Asia. India exercises lesser economic power internationally than China. Democracy was unquestionably one of India’s biggest international assets. The United States and its allies have courted India as a potential strategic partner and democratic counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific region. However, the Indian government’s departures from democratic norms could blur the values-based distinction between Beijing and New Delhi

1. B) Entrepreneurship

In India, due to the diversities of economic life, the evidence shows that economic growth is best achieved in times of civic and social freedom. In India’s economic growth-oriented phases where governments delivered steady growth rates, the state had a lighter footprint on civic life. The attempt to spur free private enterprise is bound to fail when the state apparatus is constricting civil and democratic rights. The common entrepreneur is a free thinker. But when the freedom to think is constricted, the robust energies of new entrepreneurs are in danger of being snuffed out.

WHAT ARE THE CRITICISMS OF THESE REPORTS?

But just as democracy is not about poll statistics, our democratic credentials can’t be crunched into a score either. The parameters in play are unquantifiable. The method used to condense the complexities of this vast country into a score that allows a rank ordering could be debated. Globally, ratings are being called into question. One prominent researcher concludes that the ratings may look scientific but they’re actually subjective.

General observation does confirm that India has not escaped global trends. Power appears more centralized than before and complaints have been aired of dissent losing space. What these ratings seem not to have taken into account are the popular voices of support for the constitutional values and democratic principles of equality, liberty and justice.

As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has argued, Indians are inherently argumentative, and our traditions of debate and discursive problem-solving go back millennia. The country’s response to the suspension of civil liberties during the Emergency testifies to that. It is hard to argue that Indians at large are not better informed and keener on empowerment now than they were then. Democracy is far more than the periodic ritual of exercising our franchise, yes, but it cannot be reduced to an index reading either.

Other organs of the state, Parliament and the Courts have enacted and reinforced progressive social legislation. Gay sex decriminalized, right to privacy fire-walled and women have been granted equal rights to pray in thus far male-only places of worship. Even when state governments have enacted legislation impinging upon the private lives of two consenting adults the courts have been quick to restrain police who filed cases under the laws.

A large number of nations where there is no separation of powers between the state and religion, which do not have a republican form of government, and where the concept of equality before the law does not exist, are way ahead of us. In fact, many countries in the top ten nations have different forms of Christianity as their state religion, whereas the secular ideal is embedded in the preamble of our Constitution.

These rankings are useful for research and identifying very broad trends that academics are interested in. This is an instance of academic discourse and concepts operating at a considerable distance from lived experience. The operational concepts across the two domains are very different.

Indeed, the methodology and ranking mechanisms adopted by organisations like Freedom House and projects like V-Dem can be critiqued. But Within their limitations, such assessments fulfil two purposes. They allow cross-national comparisons. One may have reservations about their criteria but being common for all countries, they give a reasonable idea of where a country stands vis-à-vis others. They also tell us how a given country has been performing over time.

WAY FORWARD

The signs of authoritarianism cannot be denied. Since the end of the Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have been caused not by coups but by elected governments themselves. More prevalent now is what scholars are calling “democratic backsliding”, a new concept to depict democratic erosion led by elected politicians, often quite legally. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are legal in the sense that they are approved by the legislatures or accepted by the courts. There are examples from Latin America and Europe, and the US under Donald Trump. India’s democracy is backsliding because elected politicians are subverting democracy.

Democratic backsliding in India is especially concerning because India’s democracy was exceptional as democracy was not only established at low levels of income, but it even flourished. Other certificates from foreign monitors or watchdogs are welcomed and celebrated. This is true of the QS World University Rankings 2021, and World Bank’s annual report on ease of doing business 2020. These are applauded — as they should be. Yet, the bedrock beneath top-notch campuses and a vibrant market are the nation’s democratic credentials and the work of maintaining them is the most stellar achievement of all. They are what separates India from its neighbours in the region, and what distinguishes it from China. The combination of an open market and open democracy is what attracts private players and investors factor into their economic calculations. There must be no erosion or backsliding here — and in an increasingly interconnected world, perceptions of erosion and backsliding need to be addressed, not dismissed.

If democracy was just about free and fair elections, India would be the world’s greatest democracy. The apparatus needed for a healthy democracy goes beyond elections to unelected institutions: the judiciary, the press, the Reserve Bank of India, the Election Commission of India, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the Lokpal, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the tax agencies, the police, and so on.

The more powerful a government, the more it pushes its way ahead of independent institutions. India will always have this problem of an executive seeking to ride roughshod over independent institutions through whatever means possible. Institutions that serve as the bulwark of democracy must regain their spirit and purpose for India to arrest its slide.

An awakening looks unlikely unless citizens themselves take up the cause of democracy. We had to pressure the government to have an independent system of appointing the Election Commissioners. Nobody wants to relinquish their powers. It is we the people who have to force the political class to have this conversation. Most of the Indian media has become a mouthpiece of the government. We need an equivalent of the First Amendment in the United States to ensure press freedom. It is civil society that will have to help create a consensus that we need to do something to ensure greater media independence.

CONCLUSION: Democracy means that the rulers represent the will of the people. It will never happen on its own. People must act to make it happen. And they need to do it as a matter of habit, daily and everywhere. That lever of control over the government – seeking accountability – must be used at every step. Reclaim democracy. It must be done daily. Seeking it once every five years will not do.

[WpProQuiz 139]

1. Ideal time for us to begin our own moulting READ MORE
2. Overcome Challenges With Faith And Patience READ MORE
3. New Moral Issues: What Happens When Someone Dies in Space? READ MORE

1. ECI’s gesture: Putting off Punjab polls welcome, but Covid concerns persist READ MORE
2. The Seventh Schedule relook READ MORE
3. Trust key to competition regulation READ MORE

1. A Failed Attempt to Create an Equally Sanitary India READ MORE
2. Preventing genocide: It is imperative that international legal protections against genocide are incorporated in domestic legislation READ MORE

1. Explainer: Why Haiti is prone to devastating earthquakes? READ MORE
2. How Does an Underwater Volcano Form? READ MORE
3. The groundwater emergency in Delhi READ MORE
4. Indian agriculture: The route post-CoP 26 READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. What you need to know about cybersecurity in 2022 READ MORE
2. Indonesia passes law to relocate capital to remote Borneo READ MORE
3. Activities of 2022 discussed at BRICS STI Steering Committee: India to host 5 events READ MORE
4. Neanderthal-inherited gene variant helps in protecting against severe COVID-19: Study READ MORE
5. ‘Hybrid terrorists’ a huge challenge in year 2022, says Jammu and Kashmir Police READ MORE
6. Legendary ‘Collarwali’ Tigress passes away in Madhya Pradesh READ MORE

Main Exam    

GS Paper- 1

1. Explainer: Why Haiti is prone to devastating earthquakes? READ MORE
2. How Does an Underwater Volcano Form? READ MORE
3. A Failed Attempt to Create an Equally Sanitary India READ MORE
4. Preventing genocide: It is imperative that international legal protections against genocide are incorporated in domestic legislation READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. ECI’s gesture: Putting off Punjab polls welcome, but Covid concerns persist READ MORE
2. The Seventh Schedule relook READ MORE
3. Trust key to competition regulation READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Inequality kills: A study of the new OxFam report READ MORE
2. The future of school education lies in learning beyond classrooms READ MORE

 INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. Preventing genocide READ MORE
2. Explained: Who are the Houthis and why did they attack UAE? READ MORE
3. Strategy to woo the ‘Stans’: Why Central Asia is important to India? READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Inflation conundrum: High price rise trends could continue in 2022, compounding the challenge for policy makers READ MORE
2. Grow the pie: Rising inequality per se isn’t a big problem if economic growth raises incomes overall READ MORE
3. Need quick solutions to address bane of growing inequality READ MORE
4. The challenges ahead for India READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. The groundwater emergency in Delhi READ MORE
2. Indian agriculture: The route post-CoP 26 READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Ideal time for us to begin our own moulting READ MORE
2. Overcome Challenges With Faith And Patience READ MORE
3. New Moral Issues: What Happens When Someone Dies in Space? READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. Discuss why despite having a good pace of economic growth in last three decade, inequality is widening in India?
2. ‘Public trust can be enhanced by transparency in governance and the use of modern technology in governance is critical to realise it in true sense’. Comment.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose finite hope.
• In the overall analysis, it is more imperative than ever that international legal protections against genocide are incorporated in domestic legislation.
• Economic growth is indispensable to provide the opportunity of a better life to everyone. Policy needs to focus on obstacles to growth, including rent-seeking.
• The government and citizens must treat groundwater as a valuable resource and its rapid depletion as an emergency.
• It’s widely known that levels of poverty have grown, and the chasm between rich and poor has widened as an economic fallout of the pandemic.
• Coal production must match planned thermal power capacity in light of green goals; the target of 1 billion tonnes (earlier 1.5) by 2025 may now be excessive.
• Deep decarbonisation is a very complex and challenging process and will have costs.
• Indian democracy and its foundations of civility are closely associated with caste and imageries of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’.
• The Swachh Bharat and the project of building toilets should have been associated with both a collective fight against caste-based discrimination as well as access to better health. In failing to realise these goals, we see a failed commitment to equal citizenship.
• Climate change affects the poor and the smallholders, who earn their livelihoods from agriculture, disproportionately. Technologies and adaptation strategies must, therefore, reduce their vulnerabilities.

50-WORD TALK

• Public trust can be enhanced by transparency in governance, by even handedness in enforcement of the law, and by policies that are fair and sensitive in the distribution of public benefits. The use of modern technology in governance has strengthened public trust in government.

Things to Remember:

• For prelims-related news try to understand the context of the news and relate with its concepts so that it will be easier for you to answer (or eliminate) from given options.
• Whenever any international place will be in news, you should do map work (marking those areas in maps and also exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers, etc. same applies to the national places.)
• For economy-related news (banking, agriculture, etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related to various economic aspects, for example, if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing price rises, shortage of essential supplies, banking rates, etc.
• For main exam-related topics, you should focus on the various dimensions of the given topic, the most important topics which occur frequently and are important from the mains point of view will be covered in ED.
• Try to use the given content in your answer. Regular use of this content will bring more enrichment to your writing.