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THE INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. THE GOVERNOR’S ROLE IN APPROVING A BILL

THE CONTEXT: The Tamil Nadu Assembly has once again adopted a Bill that was earlier returned by Governor R.N. Ravi. The Bill seeks to grant exemption from the mandatory National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) for seats allotted by the Government in undergraduate medical and dental courses in Tamil Nadu. Before it, the Governor returned the Bill, contending that it was against the interests of rural and poor students.

What comes next?

There is no doubt that the Governor will now have to grant his assent to the Bill. Under Article 200 of the Constitution, which deals with grant of assent to Bills passed by the Assembly, the first proviso enables the Governor to return a Bill, that is not a Money Bill, with a message requesting the House, or Houses, if there is an upper chamber, to reconsider the Bill, or any provisions, and also consider introducing amendments he may recommend. The House will have to reconsider as suggested. If the Bill is passed again, with or without changes, and presented for assent, “the Governor shall not withhold assent therefrom”.

In the present case, the Bill will have to be sent to the President for his assent, as it is enacted under an entry in the Concurrent List on a subject that is covered by a central law. NEET is mandatory under Section 10D of the Indian Medical Council of India Act, an amendment introduced in 2016. Therefore, the State law can be in force only if the President grants his assent. This will cure the ‘repugnancy’ between the central and State laws.

What is the Governor’s function in passing a Bill?

• Under Article 200, the Governor maya.

a) Grant assent

b) Withhold assent

c) Return for reconsideration by the Legislature or

d) Reserve for the consideration of the President any Bill passed by the State legislature and presented to him for assent.

• There is no time frame fixed in the Constitution for any of these functions.
• The Constitution makes it mandatory that the Governor should reserve for the President’s consideration if, in his opinion (a phrase that means he exercises his own discretion in this), a Bill that “so derogates from the powers of the High Court as to endanger the position which that Court is by this Constitution designed to fill”.
• In other words, any Bill that seems to clip the wings of the High Court or undermine its functioning will not become law without the President’s assent.

What happens when the President considers the Bill?

• Article 201 says when a Bill is reserved by a Governor for his consideration, “the President shall declare either that he assents to the Bill, or that he withholds assent therefrom”.
• He may also direct the Governor to return the Bill, if it is not a Money Bill, to the Legislature along with a message.
• The House or Houses will have to reconsider the Bill within a period of six months from receiving it. It may pass the Bill again with or without any change. The Bill shall again be presented to the President for his consideration. The article ends with that.
• This means that the Bill will become law if the assent is given, but nothing can be done if the Bill is denied assent by the President or if he makes no decision.

THE INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

2. INDIA TO HELP SRI LANKA LAUNCH ITS VERSION OF AADHAAR

THE CONTEXT: India has agreed to provide a grant to Sri Lanka to implement a ‘Unitary Digital Identity framework’, apparently modelled on the Aadhaar card. The Rajapaksa government will “prioritise” the implementation of the Framework as a national level programme.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Under the proposed Unitary Digital Identity Framework, it is expected to introduce a personal identity verification device based on biometric data, a digital tool that can represent the identities of individuals in cyberspace, and the identification of individual identities that can be accurately verified in digital and physical environments by combining the two devices.
• The initiative follows bilateral talks between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2019.
• It comes amid substantive economic assistance from India totalling $ 1.4 billion since the beginning of this year to Sri Lanka, to help the island nation cope with its dollar crunch, and import food, medicines and fuel amid frequent shortages.
• This is not the first time that Sri Lanka is attempting to digitise its citizens’ identities. Just a few years ago, the predecessor Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe administration, in power from 2015 to 2019, mooted a similar Electronic-National Identity Card or E-NIC that privacy advocates opposed on grounds that the state would have full access to citizens’ personal data in a central database.
• The former Mahinda Rajapaksa government tried initiating the project as early as 2011. Neither project was implemented.

THE ECONOMY

3. PRADHAN MANTRI ANNADATA AAY SANRAKSHAN ABHIYAN (PM AASHA)

THE CONTEXT: It is a scheme announced in 2018, that aims at ensuring fair price for farmers and their produce.

Its three components are as follows:

1. Price Support Scheme (PSS): Through the Price Support Scheme procurement of pulses, oilseeds will be carried out by the Central Nodal Agencies with support from state governments. The PSS will be set up by the Food Corporation of India along with NAFED and any expenses incurred will be borne by the Central Government.
2. Price Deficiency payment Scheme (PDPS): In this scheme, all oilseed notified for SP will be covered. Direct payment of difference between Minimum Support Price (MSP) and selling price will be made to registered farmers. All payments will be made to the registered bank account of the farmer. No procurement will take place but rather the difference between MSP and selling price will be paid to farmers.
3. Pilot of Private Procurement &Stockist Scheme (PPPS): As per the Pilot of Private Procurement &Stockist Scheme (PPPS) the private sector will take part in the procurement operations. The states will have an option to carry out the scheme on pilot basis in selected APMCs with involvement from the private sector.

4. STEP UP AGRI-SPENDING, BOOST FARM INCOMES

THE CONTEXT: The growth in agriculture sector has the highest positive impact on poverty reduction. Any Budget is best evaluated by examining the continuity in policies and programmes highlighted in the previous Budget(s), linkage(s) among related ministries and departments and the harmony with the overall needs of the society. The Budget apropos agriculture and farmers’ welfare can be said to pass the muster from this perspective.

THE EXPLANATION:

India’s agriculture is needed to meet nutritional security, generate jobs, create wealth for the farmers and ensure ecological sustainability. Diversification of production, integration of farm gates with markets for monetisation and expansion of the sector into bio economy-centric secondary agriculture contain the kernel of solution. The Budget attempts to address these issues, when the statements and allocations of different ministries/departments related to the agriculture sector are evaluated, and not just of the Ministry of Agriculture.

 Deficit crop segments

• Rightly is the attention paid to deficit crop segments — oil seeds and millets. India has been importing annually 70,000 crore worth edible oils. If domestic oilseeds and others sources like palm are encouraged, it is the Indian farmers who will gain. Millets are a rich source of the much-needed nutrients.
• These two segments along with pulses are also climate-resilient, thus offering a win: win solution to India’s efforts in climate action. The millets will now be provided for post-harvest value addition, enhancing domestic consumption and branding their products for integration with supply chains. Promoting these deficit-crops is integral to the practice of smart agriculture.
• Stepping of the Budget into smart agriculture is further galvanised by supplementing production technology with digital technology. The ensemble of digital technology including that of ‘Kisan Drones’ will take care of the plurality of issues all along the value chain. These encompass production planning, resource use efficiency and risks that arise from monsoons and markets, apart from the desired digitisation of land records and delivery of digital and high-tech services.
• The increasing volumes of marketable surpluses will get better monetised with the continuing support to mobilisation of farmers and aggregation of farm-produce through FPOs. The budgetary allocation gets strengthened with blended capital to be raised under the co-investment model facilitated through NABARD. The spin-off effect of financing the agricultural and rural entrepreneurial start-ups linked to farm produce value chains will extend the footprints of agriculture into secondary agriculture.
• This finds adequate support in the higher allocations for the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (a jump of more than 125 per cent); and various initiatives committed in favour of the MSME sector, including the Credit Guarantee Trust Fund for Micro & Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), that expands the credit size to ₹200,000 crore. The resulting growth of secondary agriculture and bio economy will generate supplementary jobs and incomes besides stimulating an eco-friendlier developmental approach.
• Making a strong bid for energy transition and climate action, specific references are made to solar power, circular economy, carbon neutral economy, and promotion of agro forestry and private forestry. If the targeted 5-7 per cent biomass pellets come to be co-fired in thermal power plants, along with savings of carbon di-oxide, there will be opportunities for extra income to the farmers and jobs for the locals.
• The government’s focus is on higher capital investment through convergence of budgetary and non-budgetary financial sources by way of sinking up the policies and programmes of various ministries. The Railways, for example, intends to develop infrastructure for small farmer produce. It is such cohesive inter-ministerial approach that will enhance capital use efficiency, which has a great bearing on agricultural growth rate. The vision of the government for transitioning agriculture as an employment creating, income generating and sustainable entrepreneurial system even as it meets the food and nutrition security is well borne out by the Budget.

THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

5. 50 CHEETAHS TO BE INTRODUCED IN INDIA IN NEXT 5 YEARS

THE CONTEXT: Cheetah was expected to be reintroduced into our country in November 2021 in Madhya Pradesh, but the plan got derailed due to the pandemic. After becoming extinct in 1952, cheetah is all set to return to India as the Central Government has launched an action plan under which 50 of these big cats will be introduced in the next five years.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Union Environment Minister launched the action plan at the 19th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). The plan to reintroduce cheetah had gone in limbo due to COVID-19, an NTCA official had earlier said.
• As per the action plan, a cohort of around 10-12 young cheetahs that are ideal for reintroduction shall be imported from Namibia or South Africa as a founder stock during the first year.
• An existing coalition of wild males shall be selected while the selected females shall also be known to each other as far as possible.
• The animals’ lineage and condition shall be checked in the host country to ensure that they are not from an excessively inbred stock and are in the ideal age group, so as to conform to the needs of a founding population, said the over 300-page action plan.
• Among the 10 surveyed sites in five central Indian States, Kuno Palpur National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh was rated high on the priority list for introduction of cheetah because of its suitable habitat and adequate prey base. As per the plan, the Central Government, along with ministry of environment and the Cheetah Task Force, will create a formal framework to collaborate with governments of Namibia and/or South Africa, through the Ministry of External Affairs.
• The Union Minister released a Water Atlas, mapping all the water bodies in the tiger-bearing areas of India.
• The atlas contains information about presence of such bodies in several areas, including the Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plain landscape, Central Indian Landscape and Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats landscape, North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra flood plains and Sundarbans. The atlas has been put together using remote-sensing data and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping. It will provide baseline information to forest managers to shape their future conservation strategies.
• Union Environment Minister said that tiger continues to be an endangered species. He said it is imperative that we have a reliable estimate of tiger number at Tiger Reserve & Landscape Level for their effective management. The 5th cycle of All India Tiger Estimation which is currently underway will help in taking correct policy decisions.

India has 51 Tiger Reserves in the country and efforts are being made to bring more areas under the Tiger Reserve network. The minister said that the tiger reserves were not just for tigers because more than 35 rivers originate from these areas which are crucial for water security. The continuous efforts are being made for involvement of local communities for protection of tiger reserves and eco-tourism there.

Fourteen tiger reserves have been accredited under CA|TS, and NTCA is working on getting other reserves evaluated for CA|TS accreditation. The minister said that six committees will be formed which can visit the reserves and help formulate better policy.

Regarding poaching, the minister said the air gun problem in north eastern states is an issue and that states and union territories have been advised by the ministry for holding awareness program so that people can surrender their air guns.

6. INDIA’S NEWEST MAMMAL: WHITE CHEEKED MACAQUE

THE CONTEXT: The White Cheeked Macaque has distinct white cheeks, long and thick hair on the neck and a longer tail than other Macaque species. It is the last mammal to have been discovered in Southeast Asia. Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have found a new mammal species in the country — the White Cheeked Macaque.

THE EXPLANATION:

• While the Macaque was first discovered in China in 2015, its existence was not known in India before this — it is only now that Indian scientists have discovered its presence in the remote Anjaw district in central Arunachal Pradesh. That is barely 200 km aerial distance from where it was first spotted in China — in Modog in South-eastern Tibet.
• The discovery has been published in the February 3 issue of international journal ‘Animal Gene’. The discovery was entirely accidental. The ZSI scientist and Dr Mukesh Thakur said that they were not looking for the White Cheeked Macaque; they had received a grant of Rs 10 crore for a project to study Himalayan species — this involved exploring biodiversity of the Himalayas and studying large threatened species in the region,” ZSI scientist and Dr. Mukesh Thakur, also the lead author of the study carried out under recently retired director of ZSI, Dr. Kailash Chandra.
• ZSI scientist said that they were tracking the Red Panda and the Arunachal macaque in the eastern Himalayas after that they started studyingon Arunachal macaque. They collected faecal and skin samples of the macaque and when they carried out DNA sequencing at ZSI lab, expecting it to be the Arunachal macaque, they realised it was actually the White Cheeked Macaque.
• Taken aback by the results, ZSI scientist Dr. Thakur said the team carried out DNA sequencing a second time around. Only to reconfirm that the ZSI had indeed stumbled upon the White Cheeked Macaque in India.
• Since then, ZSI has carried out several confirmations — through more testing and camera trapping of the animal. They even discovered a juvenile White Cheeked Macaque, which had been captured and held in the house of a local villager — the tribal people inhabiting Anjaw are traditional hunters.
• ZSI scientist Dr. Thakur called the discovery in both China and India as ‘breakthrough discoveries’.

Features of White Cheeked Macaque –

• The White Cheeked Macaque has distinct white cheeks, long and thick hair on the neck and a longer tail than other Macaque species. It is the last mammal to have been discovered in Southeast Asia.
• Both the Arunachal macaques as well as the White Cheeked Macaque exist in the same biodiversity hotspot in the eastern Himalayas.
• The further exploration will lead to more populations of the White Cheeked Macaque in eastern Arunachal, which is closer to where the Chinese White Cheeked Macaque was found, and that there is a high likelihood of the animal being present in Bhutan as well.
• The discovery will also lay the foundation of the species not only being included in the wildlife list but also being covered by the Wildlife Protection Act of India.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY 9TH FEB 2022

Q1. Consider the following statements about Governor’s power related to State bills:

1. When a bill is sent to the governor after it is passed by state legislature, Governor has to either give assent or send it for reconsideration of the House withing six months.
2. If the bill is returned by the President for the reconsideration of the House or Houses and is passed again, the assent to the bill can be withheld by Governor.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only

b) 2 only

c) Both 1 and 2

d) Neither 1 nor

ANSWER FOR 8^TH FEB 2022

Answer: b)

Explanation:

• The first separate Agriculture Budget to be presented in the Rajasthan Assembly session starting on February 9, with the emphasis on welfare measures for farmers and innovations for the benefit of cultivators.
• Budget will especially promote drip and sprinkler irrigation systems in view of scarcity of water in the State.

Answer: b)

Explanation:

• It is located in the state of Telangana and also known as the Rudreshwara (Lord Siva) temple.
• It was inscribed recently as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
• Outside the temple, there is an inscription in Telugu that describes Racherla Senapati Rudrayya, a general of the Kakatiya rulers of Warangal, who commissioned the lake and the temple, which took 40 years for completion in the 13th century.
• The Kakatiyas, after breaking free from Chalukyan overlordship, ruled much of central India, up to the eastern seaboard, between the 12th and 14th centuries.

Architecture:

• In contrast to the softer sandstone used for in the temples of Khajuraho, or the carvings of chlorite, laterite and khonda- rite in the Sun Temple in Konark, Ramappa’s sculptures are carved of black basalt, one of the hardest stones to work with.
• The temple is neither named after the presiding deity, Rudreshwara, nor the general who commissioned the project, but after the sculptor who built it.
• The temple rests on a foundation that uses sandbox technology, with red sandstone and black basalt used to construct the main temple, and light bricks used for the gopuram or cupola.

Dance guru Nataraja Ramakrishna used the dance poses carved in this temple to revive Perini Sivatandavam, a Kakatiya-era warrior dance form performed by men.