THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

1. EXPLAINED: FED RESERVE RATE HIKE, US RECESSION AND IMPACT ON INDIA

THE CONTEXT: In its continuing bid to cool down raging inflation in the United States — at 9.1% in June, the inflation rate is at a four-decade high — the Federal Reserve or Fed (US’ central bank) decided to raise the Federal Funds Rate target by another 75 basis points. The Fed has steadily pushed up the targeted FFR from zero to almost 2.5% now.
THE EXPLANATION:
What is the Federal Funds Rate (FFR)?
• The FFR is the interest rate at which commercial banks in the US borrow from each other overnight. The US Fed can’t directly specify the FFR but it tries to “target” the rate by controlling the money supply.
• As such, when the Fed wants to raise the prevailing interest rates in the US economy, it reduces the money supply, thus forcing every lender in the economy to charge higher interest rates. The process starts
• with commercial banks charging higher to lend to each other for overnight loans.

Why is the Fed tightening money supply?
This is called monetary tightening, and the Fed (or any other central bank, for that matter) resorts to it when it wants to rein in inflation in the economy. By decreasing the amount of money, as well as raising its price (the interest rate), the Fed hopes to dent the overall demand in the economy. Reduced demand for goods and services is expected to bring down inflation.
What are the risks of monetary tightening?
Aggressive monetary tightening — like the one currently underway in the US — involves large increases in the interest rates in a relatively short period of time, and it runs the risk of creating a recession. This is called a hard-landing of the economy as against a soft landing (which essentially refers to monetary tightening not leading to a recession). The chances of a soft-landing for the US exist but are extremely low.
What is a recession?
The most common definition of recession requires the GDP of a country to contract in two successive quarters. Contracting GDP typically results in job losses, reduced incomes, and reduced consumption.
So, is the US in recession?
A firm answer may be available as early as 6 pm India time, when the US announces the GDP growth data for the second quarter (April, May and June) of 2022. Since the US GDP has already contracted by 1.6% during the first quarter (January, February and March) of 2022, a contraction in the second quarter will imply the US is in recession

However, many observers also contest this rather strict technical definition of recession.
What is the likely impact on India?
• In the latest — July update of the — World Economic Outlook, the IMF has downgraded the growth projections for the US, China and India. “Downgrades for China and the United States, as well as for India, are driving the downward revisions to global growth during 2022–23, which reflect the materialization of downside risks highlighted in the April 2022 World Economic Outlook”.
• A global slowdown is unlikely to have any positives for India apart from some relief in crude oil prices.
• The IMF has knocked off almost a full percentage point each (0.8%, to be precise) off India’s GDP projections for the current year and the next.
• Also, IMF noted that, for India, the revision reflects mainly less favorable external conditions and more rapid policy tightening”.

2. TREND ON FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI) IN INDIA

THE CONTEXT: Singapore (27.01%) and USA (17.94%) have emerged as top 2 sourcing nations in FDI equity flows into India in FY 2021-22 followed by Mauritius (15.98%), Netherland (7.86%) and Switzerland (7.31%). It may be noted that as per the UNCTAD World Investment Report (WIR) 2022, in its analysis of the global trends in FDI inflows, India has improved one position to 7th rank among the top 20 host economies for 2021.
THE EXPLANATION:
• India is rapidly emerging as a preferred country for foreign investments in the manufacturing sector. FDI Equity inflow in Manufacturing Sectors have increased by 76% in FY 2021-22 (USD 21.34 billion) compared to previous FY 2020-21 (USD 12.09 billion).
• The Government has implemented several transformative reforms under the FDI policy regime across sectors such as insurance, defence, telecom, financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail trading, e-commerce, construction & development, civil aviation, manufacturing etc.
• Despite the ongoing pandemic and global developments, India received the highest annual FDI inflows of USD 84,835 million in FY 21-22 overtaking last year’s FDI by USD 2.87 billion. Earlier, FDI inflows increased from USD 74,391 million in FY 19-20 to USD 81,973 million in FY 20-21.
• Top 5 sectors receiving highest FDI Equity Inflow during FY 2021-22 are Computer Software & Hardware (24.60%), Services Sector (Fin., Banking, Insurance, Non Fin/Business, Outsourcing, R&D, Courier, Tech. Testing and Analysis, Other) (12.13%), Automobile Industry (11.89%), Trading 7.72% and Construction (Infrastructure) Activities (5.52%).
• Top 5 States receiving highest FDI Equity Inflow during FY 2021-22 are Karnataka (37.55%), Maharashtra (26.26%), Delhi (13.93%), Tamil Nadu (5.10%) and Haryana (4.76%)
• Top 5 sectors receiving highest FDI Equity Inflow during FY 2021-22 are Computer Software & Hardware (24.60%), Services Sector (Fin., Banking, Insurance, Non Fin/Business, Outsourcing, R&D, Courier, Tech. Testing and Analysis, Other) (12.13%), Automobile Industry (11.89%), Trading 7.72% and Construction (Infrastructure) Activities (5.52%).

THROUGH AUTOMATIC ROUTE
• In India FDI up to 100% is allowed in non-critical sectors through the automatic route, not requiring security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Prior government approval or security clearance from MHA is required for investments in sensitive sectors such as defence, media, telecommunication, satellites, private security agencies, civil aviation and mining, besides any investment from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• All foreign investments are required to be in compliance with the applicable entry route, sectoral cap, attendant conditions, sectoral laws, Companies Act, 2013 and rules thereunder, pricing guidelines, documentation and reporting requirements.

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

3. NEW RESEARCH: TWO STUDIES REINFORCE COVID-19’S WUHAN MARKET ORIGIN

THE CONTEXT: Recently, two companion papers published in Science magazine indicate that the Covid-19 pandemic “most likely began with at least two separate zoonotic transmissions starting in November 2019”, and that SARS-CoV-2 emerged via the live wildlife trade in China, with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan being the likely early epicentre of the pandemic.
THE EXPLANATION:
• The lead authors of both studies are affiliated to American universities — the University of Arizona and the University of California San Diego — and the research has been primarily funded by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH). One of the papers also received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US national public health agency.
• The paper titled ‘The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic’ (Worobey et al.), mapped geo locations of 155 of the initial 174 cases, and found that that the clustering in December around the Huanan market contrasts with the pattern of widely dispersed cases across Wuhan by early January through mid-February 2020 — indicating that the cases flowed outward from the market to elsewhere.
• The second paper, ‘The molecular epidemiology of multiple zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2’ (Pekar et al.), through simulations of SARS-CoV-2-like epidemics combined with genomic sequence data, concludes that “as with other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2’s emergence likely resulted from multiple zoonotic events” (the spread of germs from animals to humans).

Related findings
• The molecular epidemiology paper argues that the paradox of genomic diversity in the early days (before February 2020) is best explained by rejecting a single-introduction origin of the pandemic from one lineage, and instead considering that “at least two separate zoonotic transmissions, in which lineage A and B progenitor viruses were both circulating in non-human mammals prior to their introduction into humans,” occurred.
• The companion paper on the Huanan market epicentre notes that “plausible intermediate wildlife hosts of SARS-CoV-2 progenitor viruses, including red foxes, hog badgers and common raccoon dogs, were sold live at the…market up until at least November of 2019”.
• Through spatial analyses within the market, the research records that “SARS-CoV-2-positive environmental samples, including cages, carts, and freezers, were associated with activities concentrated in the southwest corner of the market” — the same section where live mammals, including raccoon dogs, hog badgers, and red foxes, were being sold immediately prior to the outbreak of the epidemic.

The study took “multiple positive samples” from a stall known to have sold live mammals, and from a water drain close by, suggesting that infected animals were present at the market at the beginning of the outbreak.
Unanswered questions
• The Huanan market paper acknowledges that a crucial question that remains unanswered is the events upstream of the market — that is, prior to the transmission from the market. The exact circumstances at the market too remain obscure, and direct evidence of an intermediate animal infected with SARS-CoV-2 either at the market or at a location connected with the supply chain, remains missing.
• The authors acknowledge that precise latitude and longitude coordinates of all cases were not available, with many such cases missing the date of onset of symptoms as well. Of the 174 Covid-19 cases in Hubei province in December 2019, geolocations of 155 cases could be reliably extracted.
• One of the papers hypothesizes that the possible source of introduction of lineage B was a seafood vendor at the market, even though there is no published genomic data from the sample of this patient. The assumption is based on the fact that an environmental sample from the stall this vendor operated was detected with lineage B.

THE SECURITY AFFAIRS

4.WHAT IS CRYPTOJACKING, THE CYBER ATTACK CARRIED OUT BY CRYPTO MINERS?

THE CONTEXT: According to a report by SonicWall, a US-based cybersecurity firm, ‘Cryptojacking’ attacks on computer systems have gone up by 30% to 66.7 million in the first half of 2022 compared to the first half of last year (2022).
THE EXPLANATION:
The report highlighted While volume increases were widespread, some business sectors were hit harder than others, such as the finance industry, which saw a rise of 269%”.
What is cryptojacking?
Cryptojacking is a cyber attack wherein a computing device is hijacked and controlled by the attacker, and its resources are used to illicitly mine cryptocurrency. In most cases, the malicious programme is installed when the user clicks on an unsafe link, or visits an infected website — and unknowingly provides access to their Internet-connected device.
Why is cryptojacking done?
• Coin mining is a legitimate, competitive process used to release new crypto coins into circulation or to verify new transactions. It involves solving complex computational problems to generate blocks of verified transactions that get added to the blockchain. The reward for the first miner who successfully manages to update the crypto ledger through this route is crypto coins.
• But the race to crack this 64-digit hexadecimal number code needs considerable computing power involving state-of-the-art hardware, and electrical power to keep the systems involved up and running.
• Cryptojackers co-opt devices, servers, and cloud infrastructure, and use their resources for mining. The use of ‘stolen’ or cryptojacked resources slashes the cost involved in mining.

Why have cryptojacking incidents gone up?
• According to the SonicWall’s Cyber Threat Report, the crackdown on ransomware attacks is forcing cybercriminals to look for alternative methods. Cryptojacking involves “lower risk”, and promises “potentially higher payday”.
• “Unlike ransomware, which announces its presence and relies heavily on communication with victims, cryptojacking can succeed without the victim ever being aware of it”.

Why should this be a concern?

• Cryptojacking is hard to detect and the victims of these attacks mostly remain unaware that their systems have been compromised. Some telltale signs are the device slowing down, heating up, or the battery getting drained faster than usual.
• Apart from individuals, businesses too are on the target list of cryptojackers. According to the report, cryptojacking incidents targeting the retail industry rose by 63% year-to-date, while similar attacks on the financial industry skyrocketed 269%.
“The primary impact of cryptojacking is performance-related, though it can also increase costs for the individuals and businesses affected because coin mining uses high levels of electricity and computing power,” says the Interpol.

VALUE ADDITION:
Government initiatives to strengthen Cyber Security in India
• CERT-In (Cyber Emergency Response Team – India) – It was created by Section 70B of the IT Act. It is the national nodal agency to respond against computer security threats as and when required.
• National Cyber Security Coordination Centre (NCCC): The NCCC is mandated to perform real-time threat assessment. Further, they also create situational awareness of potential cyber threats to the country. It was made operational in 2017.
• Information Technology Act (IT) 2000 – It is the primary law for dealing with cyber-crime and digital commerce in India.
 The act covers a broad range of offences including child pornography, cyber terrorism etc.
 Section 75 of the Act empowers the government to punish people located outside India who is accused of the offence.

THE PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

5. REVISION SERIES: SAMUDRAYAAN MISSION

• Samudrayaan Mission is aimed to develop a self propelled manned submersible to carry 3 human beings to a water depth of 6000 meters in the ocean with a suite of scientific sensors and tools for deep ocean exploration. It has an endurance of 12 hours of operational period and 96 hours in case of emergency.
• The manned submersible will allow scientific personnel to observe and understand unexplored deep sea areas by direct interventions. Further, it will enhance the capability for deep sea man rated vehicle development.
• The projected timeline is five years for the period 2020-2021 to 2025-2026.
• National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai, an autonomous institute under MoES, has developed 6000 m depth rated Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and various other underwater instruments such as Autonomous Coring System (ACS), Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and Deep Sea Mining System (DSM) for the exploration of deep sea.

VALUE ADDITION:
Deep Ocean Mission:
The Samudrayaan project is a part of the deep-sea ocean mission under MoES approved in 2021.
• It is India’s first unique manned ocean mission that aims to send men into the deep sea in a submersible vehicle for deep-sea ocean exploration and mining of rare minerals.
• Resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, Gas hydrates, hydrothermal sulfides, and cobalt crusts will be explored which are usually located at a depth between 1000 to 5500 meters.
• The project is undertaken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), under MoES.
• India has been allocated a site of 75,000 sq km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin by the International Sea Bed Authority (ISA) for the exploration of polymetallic nodules from the seabed in a 15-year contract.
• The estimated resource potential of polymetallic nodules is 380 million tonnes through preliminary studies.
• Major components in these nodules are manganese, nickel, copper, and cobalt.

The six components of the mission are-
1. Development of technologies for deep-sea mining and manned submersible.
2. Development of ocean climate change advisory services.
3. Technological innovations for sustainable use of marine bio-resources.
4. Deep ocean survey and exploration
5. Energy production from the ocean and offshore based desalination
6. Advanced marine station for ocean biology.

6. WORLD HEPATITIS DAY 2022

THE CONTEXT: On July 28, World Hepatitis Day is celebrated across the World, annually. The day seeks to raise awareness on the Hepatitis, which cause deaths of around 125 000 people in Africa every year, even though the disease can be cured.

THE EXPLANATION:
Theme of the World Hepatitis Day 2022:
• In year 2022, the World Hepatitis Day is being celebrated under the theme- “Bringing hepatitis care closer to you”.
• This theme is aimed at highlighting the usefulness of bringing hepatitis care closer to primary health care facilities and communities.
• It also seeks to ensure better access to treatment and care.
About Hepatitis:
• It is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals show no symptoms of hepatitis. On the other hand, others people develop yellow discoloration of skin and whites of the eyes, vomiting, poor appetite, abdominal pain, tiredness, and diarrhoea. The disease is acute, if it is treated within six months.
• It can be turned chronic, if it lasts more than six months. Acute hepatitis can be treated on its own, while chronic hepatitis causes failure of liver. Chronic hepatitis can lead to liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure.
Hepatitis case burden in WHO African Region:
• In Africa, over 90 million people are living with hepatitis. It accounts for 26% of total cases worldwide. The disease goes undetected mostly, because of absence of any symptoms. As per WHO, prevalence of Hepatitis B in around S8% of the total populations across 19 countries.
• Hepatitis C is prevalent among 1% population across 18 countries. Transmission of Hepatitis B from mother to child is high.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q. Consider the following statements with respect to Deep Ocean Mission:
1. The Samudrayaan project is a part of the deep-sea ocean mission.
2. It was implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Which of the above statements is/are incorrect?
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2

ANSWER FOR THE PRACTICE QUESTION

ANSWER: D
Explanation:
Deep Ocean Mission:
The Samudrayaan project is a part of the deep-sea ocean mission under MoES approved in 2021.
• It is India’s first unique manned ocean mission that aims to send men into the deep sea in a submersible vehicle for deep-sea ocean exploration and mining of rare minerals.
• Resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, Gas hydrates, hydrothermal sulfides, and cobalt crusts will be explored which are usually located at a depth between 1000 to 5500 meters.
• The project is undertaken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), under MoES.

1. Lessons from the Burkapal acquittal: The case raises questions about the investigation skills of the local police and the impact of police action READ MORE
2. Envisage immortality in the mortal world READ MORE
3. Four objectives of education READ MORE

1. Birth versus worth: Impact of the caste system on entrepreneurship in India READ MORE
2. Get serious about ‘one health’: Prioritise investments to strengthen human & animal health infrastructure READ MORE
3. MTP Act: Does it enable choice for women? READ MORE

1. Big polluters must reset their climate goals READ MORE
2. Severe heatwave in Mediterranean Sea for 70 days, mass mortalities in marine life expected READ MORE

1. Keeping the ED impartial, apolitical READ MORE
2. Data is critical for democracy READ MORE
3. Surge in ED raids: Financial probe agency’s credibility is at stake READ MORE
4. Control population in noncoercive way READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. Thousands of villages set to get 4G coverage READ MORE
2. initiates work on consumer spending survey READ MORE
3. Supreme Court upholds powers of arrest, raids, seizure under PMLA READ MORE
4. Explained: Lion’s future, cheetah’s past READ MORE
5. Kerala to exclude human settlements from 1-km eco zone of forests READ MORE
6. Lok Sabha passes Bill to create statutory framework for doping watchdog READ MORE
7. Glaciers Vanishing at Record Rate in Alps Following Heatwaves READ MORE
8. Hepatitis in children: Scientists have found a possible cause for the mystery outbreak READ MORE

Main Exam

GS Paper- 1

1. Birth versus worth: Impact of the caste system on entrepreneurship in India READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Keeping the ED impartial, apolitical READ MORE
2. Data is critical for democracy READ MORE
3. Surge in ED raids: Financial probe agency’s credibility is at stake READ MORE
4. Control population in noncoercive way READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Get serious about ‘one health’: Prioritise investments to strengthen human & animal health infrastructure READ MORE
2. MTP Act: Does it enable choice for women? READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. The message for Biden — West Asia has moved on: The U.S. President’s visit could serve his domestic interests to some extent, but it has made no difference to the region READ MORE
2. CPEC and ‘third parties’: India must make efforts to apprise world of its concerns READ MORE

 GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. The poor state of India’s fiscal federalism: Concerns of the founding fathers — addressing socio-economic inequities — are being forgotten in today’s fiscal policy READ MORE
2. From freebies to welfare READ MORE
3. The road to India’s $5 trillion economy READ MORE
4. Black Sea deal to ease global food challenge READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Big polluters must reset their climate goals READ MORE
2. Severe heatwave in Mediterranean Sea for 70 days, mass mortalities in marine life expected READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Lessons from the Burkapal acquittal: The case raises questions about the investigation skills of the local police and the impact of police action READ MORE
2. Envisage immortality in the mortal world READ MORE
3. Four objectives of education READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. ‘India’s fiscal federalism driven by political centralisation has deepened socio-economic inequality, belying the dreams of the founding fathers who saw a cure for such inequities in planning’. Critically examine.
2. ‘Freebies lower the quality and competitiveness of the manufacturing sector by detracting from efficient and competitive infrastructure.’ In the light of the statement, discuss whether of the culture of freebies should be stopped? Justify your view.
3. ‘In a country with low per capita income, public health must be treated as a crucial public good’. Comment.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• The groundwork for all happiness is good health.
• The case raises questions about the investigation skills of the local police and the impact of police action.
• Concerns of the founding fathers — addressing socio-economic inequities — are being forgotten in today’s fiscal policy.
• India’s fiscal federalism driven by political centralisation has deepened socio-economic inequality, belying the dreams of the founding fathers who saw a cure for such inequities in planning.
• Biden’s vision of a West Asia beholden to the U.S. for its security is obsolete.
• Freebies lower the quality and competitiveness of the manufacturing sector by detracting from efficient and competitive infrastructure.
• Public health must be treated as a crucial public good in a country with low per capita income.
• To ensure that ED and money-laundering probes remain apolitical and impartial, India needs strong political will and an inter-party consensus, both of which seem elusive today.

ESSAY TOPIC

• The groundwork for all happiness is good health.

50 WORD TALK

• There has been rise in food and fuel prices, as well as supply chain issues, as the mountains of grain stocks remained stuck in silos. It shows the enormous cost of allowing the conflict to rage on, supplying arms to Ukraine, and using the sanctions to isolate Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council. As rival egos took centre stage and crippling sanctions and geopolitics took priority in place of peace, the world has paid a heavy price.

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 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.

[WpProQuiz 298]

THE CONTEXT: On 29 May 2022, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (‘RLD’) organised a social justice conference that marked the 35th death anniversary of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. During the conference, the demand was made for an Equality Commission by various political parties present at the conference. At present, there is no comprehensive anti-discrimination law covering the entire country. The constitutional provisions generally view discrimination from a state-citizen perspective. But this approach does not take into account the discriminatory actions of private individuals. This article analyses the merits of such an inclusive body.

HISTORY OF EQUALITY COMMISSION DEMANDS IN INDIA

SACHAR COMMITTEE REPORT

• In 2005, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted a High-Level Committee to prepare a report on the social, economic, and educational status of the Muslim community of India.
• The seven-member committee was chaired by former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice Rajinder Sachar, and it submitted its final report in November 2006.
• In its observations on the ‘development deficit’ among Muslims, the Sachar Committee Report recommended the setting up of an Equal Opportunity Commission (‘EOC’) to “look into grievances of all deprived groups”.

MENON COMMITTEE REPORT

• In 2008, an expert group, headed by a civil servant, lawyer and legal educator Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon was set up by the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs to implement the EOC model, including developing a legislative framework.
• The Menon Committee Report recommended the structure, scope, and functions of the proposed EOC, and advised on an appropriate legislative foundation for its implementation.
• It proposed an Equal Opportunity Commission Bill, 2008 to constitute an EOC.
• The Bill aimed to address discrimination or any distinction, exclusion, or restriction made on the basis of sex, caste, language, religion, descent, place of birth, residence, disability, descent, place of birth, residence, race, or any other unjustified criteria.
• The EOC, as conceptualised by the Sachar Committee and developed into an implementation model by the Menon Committee, represented a Commission to supplement reservations.

Ø  Reservations or ‘removal of disabilities’, as the Menon Committee Report observed, do not warrant equality of opportunities. Hence, the EOC was meant for the deprived groups to access their rights and entitlements, and to address inter-group inequalities, as a move beyond the existing policies on reservations.

Ø  The Equal Opportunity Commission Bill, 2008, as prepared by the Menon Committee, was approved by the Union Cabinet in February 2014, with the mandate of ensuring no minority community (restricting its ambit from a broader ‘deprived groups’) is discriminated on grounds of religion and redressing complaints therewith. However, the bill has been ignored since then.

RATIONALE BEHIND THE DEMANDS OF EQUALITY COMMISSION

• Though Equality is a foundational value of our Republic, stark inequalities mark our present social reality and prospects for the future generations. Inter-group inequalities often coincide with boundaries of communities and are becoming more visible than before which suggests that there is an urgent need to address these inequalities and supplement the existing policies of reservations by fine tuning the definition of the beneficiaries, expanding the range of modalities and evolving a forward looking and integral approach to affirmative action and for this reason we need an Equal Opportunity Commission. The setting up of an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC), sooner than later, will be a significant step towards fulfilling the Constitutional promise of equality in its different dimensions.
• Existing modalities for dealing with problems of unequal opportunity, disproportionate deprivation and various forms of discrimination are in urgent need of rethinking for three main reasons:
• our methods of diagnosing the problem need to become more sophisticated;
• the range of proposed solutions needs to be expanded; and
• an integrated, forward looking strategy needs to be formulated for tackling the many different kinds of problems associated with inequality of opportunity in a systematic and phased manner.

 MANDATE OF EQUALITY COMMISSION

• In defining the scope of the proposed EOC there is a need to balance two kinds of considerations.
• On the one hand the very idea of an Equal Opportunity Commission demands that the commission should be able to address and redress any and every form of inequality of opportunity, cutting across domains, groups and sectors.
• On the other hand, care has to be taken to ensure that the new Commission does not duplicate the work already being done by pre-existing commissions and is not overwhelmed by the number of cases that it has to address. Hence it is imperative that the jurisdiction of the EOC should be wide-ranging in terms of the sectors and social groups, but it should be delimited in terms of the domains as well as the nature of complaints that it can take up.
• The opportunity offered by the setting up of the EOC must not be restricted only to SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities, persons with disabilities or to any other set of pre-defined groups. The EOC should in principle be open to any person who feels disadvantaged, deprived or discriminated against on grounds of belonging to any social group. Thus the jurisdiction of the Commission should extend to all “deprived groups” who have been denied or who claim to have been denied equal opportunities.

 EQUALITY COMMISSION IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALISATION

• The rapid growth of global markets has not seen the parallel development of social and economic institutions to ensure balanced, inclusive and sustainable growth.
• For many, globalisation — the intensified cross-border exchange of goods, services, capital, technology, ideas, information, legal systems, and people — is both desirable and irreversible, having underwritten a rising standard of living throughout the world. Others recoil from globalisation as they feel it is the soft underbelly of corporate imperialism that plunders and profiteers on the back of rampant consumerism.
• There is a growing divergence in income levels between countries and peoples, with widening inequality among and within nations. Assets and incomes are more concentrated. Wage shares have fallen. Profit shares have risen. Capital mobility alongside labour immobility has also reduced the bargaining power of marginalised in many ways hence, it becomes imperative to have an Equality Commission to arrest the dark side of the globalisation.
• Globalisation has also let loose the forces of “uncivil society” and accelerated the transnational flows of terrorism, human and drug trafficking, organised crime, piracy, and pandemic diseases as we have already seen the plight of migrant labours (loss of livelihood), other marginalised sections (health, education, sanitation etc).

IDEA OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND POLITICS

• Relevance of equal opportunity rests on two foundations.
• First, it rests on a semantic foundation. The rise of the concept of equal opportunity is accompanied by the fall of the idea of equal outcome, an idea that was strongly associated with the traditional welfare state that tried to create social equality through compensation. In contrast to equal outcome, equal opportunity presupposes that value is only produced to the extent that individuals actively pursue their opportunities.
• Second, it also rests on a social-structural foundation. At least since the 1970s, the political systems of Western welfare states had to find new solutions in the face of an ever-growing social pressure wherein the claims to welfare resources from social groups that had succeeded in being defined as “underprivileged” or even “marginalised” have grown. In all cases, such claims were justified by drawing on the value of social equality.
• In India also such demands for equality commission can be seen in the light of the growing pressure from all sections of the society on the government to adhere in letter and spirit to the constitutional ideals of equality and justice.

WHAT IS AN ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW?

Discrimination means unfair treatment due to a person’s race, caste, religion, gender or other identity markers.  Thus, an anti-discrimination law or non-discrimination law or equality law (here and after “law”) means legislation aimed at preventing discrimination against people based on their personal characteristics. The pith and substance of these laws are twofold.

• One is the vesting of the right against discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics such as race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender, among others.
• The second is the imposition of civil liabilities on persons for engaging in unlawful discrimination.

Such laws concretise or give substance to the notion of equality mentioned in the Constitution without which the rights given therein will remain a myth.

Ø  Thus, the philosophy of the law is to bring an egalitarian society in its widest sense and purpose of the term by establishing a comprehensive anti-discriminatory legal-institutional ecosystem.

NEED FOR AN EQUALITY COMMISSION IN INDIA

STRUCTURAL DISCRIMINATION 

• More than 70 years after Independence, our society remains rife with structural discrimination. These prejudices pervade every aspect of life, from access to basic goods, education and employment etc.
• Cases of discrimination continue to be witnessed. They are frequently directed against Dalits, Muslims, Women, Persons of different sexual orientations, ‘Hijras’, persons with disabilities, persons from the North-Eastern States, unmarried couples and non-vegetarians, among others.
• Mob lynching, hate speech, communal polarization, etc are the results of such discriminatory practices.
• Today there are multiple sources of discrimination that go beyond what is provided in the Constitution.

DISCRIMINATION BY INDIVIDUALS

• The Right to Equality under the Constitution prevents the state from discriminating against persons on various grounds. But it is silent on the discrimination practised by private individuals and organisation although Art 15(2) and 17 deal with this aspect but their enforceability and effectiveness has been poor (Art 15 (2) prohibits discrimination on religion, race, caste etc from accessing shops, hotels, places of public entertainment, wells, tanks etc.)
• There is no legal recourse in India if citizens have been discriminated against by private entities such as service providers, landlords, housing societies, employers, educational institutions, retailers etc.
• The law would provide the right direction towards positive duties of every organisation to make such policies, which make diversification and anti-discrimination mandatory.

GROWING PUBLIC DEMAND

• Beginning from the Sachar committee’s recommendation for such a law, there have been a few efforts in recent times. Shashi Tharoor introduced a private member’s bill in 2017, while the Centre for Law & Policy Research drafted and released an Equality Bill in 2019.
• In mid-2021, many state governments brought draft anti-discriminatory bills to deal with the problems of discrimination faced by people.
• Most recently in May 2022, a Social Justice Conference organised to mark the 35th death anniversary of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh attended by various political parties also made demands for an Equality Commission.
• These attempts recognise that our civil liberties are just as capable of being threatened by acts of private individuals as they are by the state.

EXISTING LAWS ARE NOT ENOUGH 

• The existing laws cover only the major areas of discrimination, like untouchability, sexual harassment at the workplace etc.
• The questions of many vulnerable groups remain unanswered. For example, why are some minorities or homosexuals not taken as workers by private landowners? Why does a discriminatory mindset exist regarding someone’s marital status, disability, sexuality, or food habits?

JUDICIAL LIMITATIONS

• Since only the High Courts and the Supreme Court have the power to address violations of constitutional rights, approaching these courts for every instance of discrimination is hardly a feasible choice. Moreover, the judiciary continues to be overburdened with a considerable backlog of cases.
• Thus, local enforcement mechanisms, in the form of equality commissions, fit the bill.

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE 

• We encounter so many situations every day where someone is refused accommodation because he is a Dalit, a Muslim or a Homosexual. NGOs, housing societies, schools, colleges, hospitals, no such institution is completely free from this evil. Even sports are not immune from this problem as a famous Indian cricketer pointed out how players from the south faced racial discrimination while playing in the north.
• During the Covid 19, Sex workers and healthcare workers have been facing stigma and harassment for being carriers of the virus. In Pune, 22 members of staff of a multi-speciality hospital were forced to vacate their accommodation as they had treated a Covid-19-positive and were thought to be infected. Nurses working at Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru were evicted from their paying guest accommodations based on the perception that they are infected with the coronavirus.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND SDGS

• The UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of India in 2017 has commended that India needs to strengthen its national framework to reduce all kinds of discrimination and promote and protect the human rights of all its citizens in an inclusive manner, to fulfil the Sustainable Development Goal 10 of reducing inequality and discrimination.

GLOBAL EXAMPLES

SOUTH AFRICA 

• In South Africa, for example, a constitutional guarantee is augmented by an all-encompassing law that prohibits unfair discrimination not only by the government but also by private organisations and individuals. India is unique among democracies in that a constitutional right to equality is not supported by comprehensive legislation.

GREAT BRITAIN ( ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES)

• The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is Great Britain’s national equality body. As a statutory non-departmental public body established by the Equality Act 2006, the Commission operates independently. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) monitors human rights, protecting equality across 9 grounds – age, disability, sex, race, religion and belief, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation and gender reassignment.

USA 

• The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, colour, religion, sex (including pregnancy, transgender status, and sexual orientation), national origin, age. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a bipartisan Commission comprised of five presidentially appointed members.
• It enforces the “Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act (No FEAR) 2002” which aims to ensure that all Federal employees feel free to come forward with allegations of discrimination, wrongdoing, or misconduct, by making sure that Federal employees are aware of their rights.
• This law aims to increase the accountability of federal agencies for acts of discrimination and reprisal. This protection covers the full spectrum of employment decisions, including recruitment, selections, terminations, and other decisions concerning terms and conditions of employment.
• The EEOC also enforces the Civil Rights Act 1964, the Equal Pay Act, and The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, among others.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO DEMANDS OF EQUALITY COMMISSION

• Even after the recommendations given by the Sachar Committee Report (2006) and Menon Committee Report (2008), the then government did not expedite the legislative process of enacting an anti-discrimination law.
• The Union Cabinet belatedly approved setting up an Equal Opportunity Commission in February 2014. However, a few weeks later with the change in Government post the Lok Sabha elections, the Bill was more or less ignored.
• The Private Member Bill of Dr Tharoor (2016) also lapsed after the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.
• The proposed Kerala Anti-Discrimination and Equality Bill, 2021 is a great step in the right direction and can be a textbook example to learn for other states.

THE ANALYSIS:

1. Commissions like the National Commissions for Women, Minorities, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes, among others, exist to deal with and handle thousands of cases of discrimination each year. Notably, these individual commissions focus on protecting the rights of specific communities against specific discrimination. The National Commission for Women, for instance, deals with issues like cybercrime, dowry deaths, police apathy, gender discrimination in education and work, and other forms of discrimination against women. While these Commissions handle complaints against inequalities, they do not provide an umbrella view of the discrimination witnessed in the country. Each of the Commissions operates with a different understanding of the term ‘discrimination’.
2. While various committees existed to protect separate rights of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minorities, it is also felt that there is a need for an Equality Commission to enable the communities to unite. An entity like the Equality Commission, which is based on multiple identities and discrimination, can benefit from the complaints handled by the other Commissions. An Equality Commission can pose as a comprehensive mechanism that covers all forms of discrimination, as opposed to commissions that focus on caste, religion, or sex alone. However, it is imperative that the shortcomings of the proposed EOC under the Menon Commission be addressed so that the functions of an Equality Commission do not overlap with the already existing Commissions dealing with varied forms of discrimination.

THE WAY FORWARD:

1. Leadership by states: State legislations are contributing to the discourse on anti-discrimination law. In 2021, seven states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, West Bengal etc have come out with draft bills on this subject. The Centre can take a leaf out of this and make a comprehensive law and establish an Equal Opportunity Commission. This is vital as the states cannot legislate on subjects in Union List.
2. Ensuring effective implementation of existing laws: There are few laws and IPC provisions dealing with anti-discrimination in India. For instance, Equal Remuneration Act, of 1976 – Guarantees equal pay for equal work to men and women. Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Section 153 A)- Criminalises the use of language that promotes discrimination or violence against people on the basis of race, caste, sex, place of birth, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other category. Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 – Prohibits the denial or refusal to access mental healthcare facilities or services for people on the basis of race, caste, religion, place of birth, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or any other category. Awareness of these and such other laws need to be generated through effective public communication and the administration needs to be sensitised and trained in their implementation.
3. Fundamental changes in the socialisation process: Discrimination is as much a social problem as it is legal. A law may not solve the discrimination unless the social mores changes which must discard discrimination. The family, school and the community need to play a major role in creating a social system without discrimination.
4. Constitutional morality and judicial intervention: The judiciary has employed the concept of constitutional morality to end many discriminatory practices in Indian society including those based on sex, gender, etc. The apex court needs to nudge or persuade the representative institutions through “judicial dialogue” to facilitate the process of ending discrimination either overt or covert. Also, it needs to revisit the judgment of Zoroastrian Cooperative Society 2005 which privileged freedom to associate over the right to equality.
5. Interlinking equal opportunity and diversity: Antidiscrimination and diversity promotion are related ideals. They should form part of a single ‘Equality Bill’ with a single regulatory and enforcement commission. Distinct bodies for monitoring the prohibition of discrimination and promotion of diversity are not only wasteful but may result in counterproductive turf wars.
6. A general duty to reduce inequality: The objective of reducing socio-economic deprivation should be taken into account by all public bodies (widely defined to include not only bodies established by the Constitution or any law but also any other bodies performing public functions) while framing policy in their respective fields of activity.

THE CONCLUSION:

A coherent anti-discrimination or Equality Commission is, however, ineffective without the backing of a single, comprehensive anti-discrimination or equality law. While such legislation has been proposed time and again, it is now up to the government to adopt a singular equality law. The Private Member’s Bill of 2016 lapsed, with the government not showing any interest in adopting it. In view of the recent upsurge in violence against minority communities in India, such legislation acquires significance.

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTIONS:

1. Anti-discrimination law is not a panacea for the problems of inequality and social prejudice that are deeply rooted in our society. Comment.
2. A comprehensive anti-discrimination legal framework is required to fill the existing legal lacunae in India. Elucidate.