INDIAN POLITY AND CONSTITUTION

1. THE ENTRY OF WOMEN IN MASJIDS

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Jama Masjid in Delhi prohibited the entry of single women or women in groups inside the mosque premises. The authorities reasoned that some women fail to respect the sanctity of the place of worship, making videos there.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is the Islamic law on women’s entry?

• While there is a clear difference of opinion among Islamic scholars on the right of women to visit a dargah or a cemetery, there is lesser disagreement on a woman’s right to offer prayers inside a masjid.
• Most Islamic scholars agree that a prayer can be offered at home but can only be established in a group, hence the importance of going to a mosque. Most also agree that women have been exempted, not prohibited from going to the mosque, keeping in mind their child-rearing and other domestic responsibilities.
• In fact, the Quran at no place prohibits women from going to mosques for prayers. For instance, verse 71 of Surah Taubah, says, “The believing men and women are protectors and helpers of each other. They (collaborate) to promote all that is good and oppose all that is evil; establish prayers and give charity, and obey Allah and His Messenger.” Wherever the Quran talks of establishing prayer, it talks in gender neutral terms.
• Incidentally, when Muslims go to Mecca and Medina for Hajj and Umrah (lesser pilgrimage), both men and women pray at Haram Sharif in Mecca and Masjid-e-Nabavi in Medina. Both places have separate halls earmarked for men and women. Also, across West Asia there is no ban on women coming to the masjid for prayers. In the U.S. and Canada too, women access mosques for prayers, and even gather there for special Taraweeh prayers in Ramzan and lessons on religion.
• The denial of access to mosques for women worshippers is a largely subcontinental phenomenon. In India, only a handful of mosques maintained or owned by Jamaat-e-Islami and the Ahl-e-Hadith sect have provisions for women worshippers. Most mosques while not expressly forbidding women’s entry in masjids, have no provision for women to do ablutions for prayer or a separate prayer zone for them. They are built keeping only men in mind. Under the circumstances, they are reduced to a ‘men only’ zone.

Have there been similar bans before?

• The short-lived order of the Jama Masjid administration drew parallels with the much more prolonged ban on entry of women inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. Back in 2011, a grill was put up on the premises of the vastly popular 15th century dargah, prohibiting women from going beyond it.
• Following the ‘this much and no further’ order, some women approached the dargah management for redress. However, with the requests having been denied, they started a campaign, ‘Haji Ali for All’, winning over more women in the process. Led by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the women approached the Bombay High Court which ruled in their favour in 2016.

What is the legal issue?

• According to the Constitution, there is complete equality between men and women. In the Haji Ali Dargah case too, the High Court quoted Articles 15, 16 and 25 of the Constitution to grant women the desired access to the dargah. There are petitions filed before the Supreme Court wherein access has been sought for women in all mosques across the country. The apex court has clubbed them with the Sabarimala case.

HEALTH ISSUES

2. NEW NAME FOR MONKEYPOX

THE CONTEXT: The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that mpox is currently the preferred name for monkeypox.

THE EXPLANATION:

Why was monkeypox renamed?

• Monkeypox was named in 1970 – more than 10 years after the virus that causes the disease was discovered in captive monkeys.
• However, monkeypox probably did not originate in monkeys and knowledge related to its origins is still unknown.
• The monkeypox virus is currently found several other animals apart from monkeys.
• The name for the disease was given before the WHO published the best practices for naming diseases in 2015.
• Since the recent outbreak, experts have suggested changing the name of the disease to avoid discrimination and stigma, which discouraged people from testing and vaccination.
• The monkeypox had mainly affected gay men. In the United States, black and Hispanic people were disproportionately affected by the viral infection.
• Currently, both names – monkeypox and mpox – will be used simultaneously for one year until the former will be phased out gradually.

Who is responsible for naming diseases?

• The World Health Organization (WHO) is responsible for giving new names to newly discovered diseases and existing diseases under the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the WHO Family of International Health Related Classifications (WHO-FIC) by consulting with the member states of WHO.
• The responsibility of naming viruses lies with the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). It had started the process of renaming all orthopox viruses, including monkeypox virus, before the global outbreak in 2022. This will continue to be under the purview of the ICTV.

About ICTV

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, set up in 1966, is responsible for authorizing and organizing taxonomic classification of and the nomenclature of viruses. It was previously known as the International Committee on Nomenclature of Viruses (ICNV). The members of this organization are known as expert virologists. The ICTV has developed a systematic method to name, describe and classify every virus affecting living organisms.

VALUE ADDITION:

ABOUT MONKEYPOX:

• Monkeypox is an ongoing outbreak. The first case of the viral disease was reported in May 2022 in the United Kingdom. An individual reported the first case with travel links to Nigeria. Monkeypox disease is endemic to Nigeria. This disease is being reported outside Central and West Africa for the first time. It was declared a public health emergency of international concern on July 23, 2022.
• Monkeypox cases have been reported in over 80 countries. Considering this, the WHO has declared it a global health emergency. The confirmed cases have reached over 32,000. In Delhi, 5 monkeypox cases have been reported.

Symptoms of monkeypox:

• Monkeypox is a viral infection that displays a week or two after exposure to the virus. Common symptoms include fever, followed by a rash with lesions. The lesions last for 2–4 weeks before falling off.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

3. NEW ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHETIC SYSTEM TO CAPTURE SOLAR ENERGY

THE CONTEXT: Researchers from IISER-Thiruvananthapuram and IIT-Indore have jointly developed an artificial light-harvesting system that will help capture solar energy.

THE EXPLANATION:

About the artificial light-harvesting system

• Scientists have a novel artificial light-capturing system that imitates the process of photosynthesis to effectively capture light to conserve power. This technology addresses various challenges faced while replicating the complex process of photosynthesis as well as the problems associated with light absorbers and transmitters.

Why is the new artificial light-harvesting system significant?

• Scientists have long sought to mimic the process of photosynthesis (the process through which plants absorb sunlight and produce sugars) to be used in solar cells or artificial leaves. Many have tried to replicate the molecular and atomic structure of light-harvesting mechanism of plants in the laboratory environment. They have made use of polymeric structures, detergent-type molecules, vesicles, gels, and other bio-inspired structures to achieve this feat. Most common hurdle faced by these technologies is the aggregation or clumping of the molecules, which makes it difficult to effectively capture and conserve the light.
• The new artificial photosynthetic system makes use of clusters of silver with a nanometer dimension, which is a hundred thousand times smaller than the width of human hair. These silver nanoclusters have complicated and exotic photophysical properties. The researchers were able to stabilize them with bulky ligands and entrap the entire ensemble inside another larger molecule called cyclodextrin. This is the first time that an atom-precise nanoclusters were used for this application. It provides 93 per cent effective energy transfer because of the presence of opposite charges on the surface and the matched electronic energy distribution. The harvested energy can generate currents having higher yields than individual components.
• The new technology paves the way for designing of new light-harvesting materials that can improve the efficiency of solar cells and minimize the energy loss. Such technologies will help countries achieve their net zero carbon emissions and meet future energy needs through renewable energy sources.

4. INDIA’S FIRST PRIVATE VEHICLE LAUNCHPAD

THE CONTEXT: Chennai-based space tech startup Agnikul Cosmos recently opened India’s first private launchpad and mission control centre at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

THE EXPLANATION:

About the facility

• The Agnikul launchpad and the Agnikul mission control centre are four kilometres apart. They are connected with each other via various critical systems to ensure 100 per operationality during the countdown.
• This facility was designed by the startupAgnikul Cosmos and executed with the support from ISRO and the IN-SPACe.
• It is first exclusive Launchpad for launching private launch vehicles.
• It is designed specifically to support liquid stage-controlled launches and help ISRO range operations team to monitor flight safety parameters during launches.
• This facility can share data and other important information with ISRO’s mission control centre whenever necessary.
• Agnikul’s inaugural launch of the Agnibaan rocket will take place from this Launchpad. This mission is intended to be a technology demonstrator, mirroring Agnikul’s orbital launch but at a reduced scale.

What is Agnibaan rocket?

• Agnibaan rocket is a customizable two-stage launch vehicle capable of carrying up to 100 kg payload to orbits some 700 km high (low earth orbits) and enable plug-and-play configuration. This mobile launch system is fully made using 3D printing. The rocket has three stages. The first stage is powered by 7 Agnite engines. The second stage uses an Agnilet engine optimized for vacuum use.
• The Agnilet is the world’s first single-piece 3D printed engine to be fully designed and manufactured in India. It uses liquid oxygen and kerosene as oxidizer and fuel. It was successfully tested in 2021, making Agnikul the first company in India to test its engines in ISRO.

THE SECURITY AFFAIRS

5. INDIA’S THIRD SURVEY VEHICLE SHIP ‘IKSHAK’ IS LAUNCHED FOR THE INDIAN NAVY

THE CONTEXT: Indian Navy’s third Survey Vehicle ‘Ikshak’ has been launched in Chennai which is being built by GRSE and L&T. This is the third of the third of the four Survey Vessels (Large) (SVL) Project, being built by GRSE and L&T for Indian Navy.

THE EXPLANATION:

The ship has been named ‘Ikshak’ which means ‘Guide’. The ship has been named to signify the contribution of the Survey ships towards facilitating safe passage for Mariners at Sea.

About Ikshak

• Ikshak is the third of the four survey vessels built under the Survey Vessels (Large) (SVL) Project for the Indian Navy.
• It was built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) Ltd in partnership with the Larsen and Toubro (L&T).
• The vessel has been named ‘Ikshak’, which means “Guide”. The name signifies the contribution of survey vessels towards facilitating safe passage for Mariners at Sea.

About the SVL project

• The GRSE and the Ministry of Defence have signed a Rs.2,435 crore contract to build four Survey Vessels (Large) (SVL) in 2018. Under this project, the first ship was at GRSE, Kolkata. The remaining three ships are being constructed (upto outfitting stage) by the subcontractor L&T Shipbuilding. The first SVL under this contract, ‘Sandhayak’, was delivered in December 2021 at GRSE in Kolkata.
• The vessels developed under this project will replace the existing Sandhayak Class survey ships. The new SVL ships are 110 meters long and 16 meters wide, with deep displacement of 3400 tons. A single SVL vessel is capable of accommodating 231 personnel. The hull of these vessels is made of indigenously developed DMR 249-A steel manufactured by the Steel Authority of India Limited. These ships have some 80 per cent of indigenous content by cost.
• Their propulsion system of the SVL has two Main Engines in twin shaft configuration, designed to reach a maximum speed of 18 knots. It has new-generation hydrographic equipment capable of collecting accurate oceanographic data. One of the key features of this vessel is the integration of Bow & Stern Thrusters that improve the low-speed maneuverability, which is required during surveys conducted in shallow waters.

What are the uses of the survey vessel?

The SVL is capable of carrying four Survey Motor Boats and an integral helicopter. It can undertake full-scale coastal and deep-water hydrographic surveys of ports and navigation channels. This vessel will be deployed for collecting oceanographic and geophysical data for civil and defence applications. It is also capable of providing limited defence and serving as a hospital ship during the times of emergencies.

THE PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

6. PLACES IN NEWS: MAUNA LOA

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Mauna Loa, world’s largest volcano, erupted for the first time in 38 years.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that together make up the Big Island of Hawaii, which is the southernmost island in the Hawaiian archipelago.
• It’s not the tallest (that title goes to Mauna Kea) but it’s the largest and makes up about half of the island’s land mass.
• It sits immediately north of Kilauea volcano, which is currently erupting from its summit crater.
• Kilauea is well-known for a 2018 eruption that destroyed 700 homes and sent rivers of lava spreading across farms and into the ocean.
• Mauna Loa last erupted in 1984. It has erupted 33 times since 1843. The recent 2022 eruption is the 34th since the written history began in 1843. This volcano is situated at immediate north of Kilauea Volcano, which is infamous for the 2018 eruption that destroyed 700 homes and sent lava that purged farms before entering into the ocean.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTION

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q1. Consider the following statements about iNCOVACC vaccine:
1. It was developed by Bharat Biotech company in partnership with Washington University.
2. It requires sub-zero temperatures for storage and distribution.
3. Its development was partly funded by Government of India.
Which of the statements given above are correct?

a) 1 and 2 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: C

Explanation:

• Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) announced that iNCOVACC (BBV154), an intranasal vaccine against coronavirus disease, has received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) under Restricted Use in Emergency Situation for all adults in India, for heterologous booster doses.
• iNCOVACC is the world’s first intranasal Covid vaccine to receive approval for the primary 2-dose schedule and heterologous booster dose.
• iNCOVACC is stable at 2-8°C for easy storage and distribution.
• iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
• iNCOVACC has been specifically formulated to allow intranasal delivery through nasal drops. The nasal delivery system has been designed and developed to be cost-effective in low and middle-income countries.
• iNCOVACC was developed in partnership with Washington University, St Louis.
• Product development and clinical trials were funded in part by the Government of India.

[WpProQuiz 375]

THE CONTEXT: on January 10^th 2020, the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated. This ordinance could re­sult in a paradigm shift in the coal mining sector.

• The Ordinance amends the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act) and the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 (CMSP Act).
• The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957regulates the mining sector in India and specifies the requirement for obtaining and granting mining leases for mining operations.
• The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015provides for the auction and allocation of mines whose allocation was cancelled by the Supreme Court in 2014.  Schedule I of the Act provides a list of all such mines; Schedule II and III are sub-classes of the mines listed in the Schedule I.  Schedule II mines are those where production had already started then, and Schedule III mines are ones that had been earmarked for a specified end-use.

OBJECTIVES OF THE AMENDMENTS

1. Enhancing the ease of doing business.
2. Democratization of coal mining sector by opening it up to anyone willing to invest.
3. Offering of unexplored and partially explored coal blocks for mining through prospecting license-cum-mining Lease (PL- cum-ML).
4. Promoting Foreign Direct Investment in the coal mining sector by removing the restriction and eligibility criteria for participation.
5. Allowing of successful bidder/allottee to utilise mined coal in any of the plant of its subsidiary or holding company
6. Attracting large investment in coal mining sector as restrictions of end use has been dropped.

UNDERSTANDING AMENDMENTS IN DETAIL

REMOVAL OF RESTRICTION ON END-USE OF COAL

• Currently, companies acquiring Schedule II and Schedule III coal mines through auctions can use the coal produced only for specified end-uses such as power generation and steel production.
• The Ordinance removes this restriction on the use of coal mined by such companies.
• Companies will be allowed to carry on coal mining operation for own consumption, sale or for any other purposes, as may be specified by the central government.  They may also utilise such coal in their subsidiaries’ plants.

ELIGIBILITY FOR AUCTION OF COAL AND LIGNITE BLOCKS

• The Ordinance clarifies that the companies need not possess any prior coal mining experience in India in order to participate in the auction of coal and lignite blocks.
• Further, the competitive bidding process for auction of coal and lignite blocks will not apply to mines considered for allotment to:

(i) A government company or its joint venture for own consumption, sale or any other specified purpose; and

(ii) A company that has been awarded a power project on the basis of a competitive bid for tariff.

COMPOSITE LICENSE FOR PROSPECTING AND MINING

• Currently, separate licenses are provided for prospecting and mining of coal and lignite, called prospecting license, and mining lease, respectively.  Prospecting includes exploring, locating, or finding mineral deposit.
• The Ordinance adds a new type of license, called prospecting license-cum-mining lease.  This will be a composite license providing for both prospecting and mining activities.

NON-EXCLUSIVE RECONNAISSANCE PERMIT HOLDERS TO GET OTHER LICENSES

• Currently, the holders of non-exclusive reconnaissance permit for exploration of certain specified minerals are not entitled to obtain a prospecting license or mining lease. Reconnaissance operations mean preliminary prospecting of a mineral through certain surveys.
• The Ordinance provides that the holders of such permits may apply for a prospecting license-cum-mining lease or mining lease.  This provision will apply to certain licensees as prescribed in the Ordinance.

TRANSFER OF STATUTORY CLEARANCES TO NEW BIDDERS

• Currently, mining leases for specified minerals (minerals other than coal, lignite, and atomic minerals) can be transferred to new persons through auction upon expiry.  Such new persons are required to obtain statutory clearances before starting mining operations.
• The Ordinance provides that the various approvals, licenses, and clearances given to the previous lessee will be extended to the successful bidder for a period of two years.  During this period, the new lessee will be allowed to continue mining operations.  However, the new lessee must obtain all the required clearances within this two-year period.

REALLOCATION AFTER TERMINATION OF THE ALLOCATIONS

• The CMSP Act provides for termination of allotment orders of coal mines in certain cases.  The Ordinance adds that such mines may be reallocated through auction or allotment as may be determined by the central government.
• The central government will appoint a designated custodian to manage these mines until they are reallocated.

PRIOR APPROVAL FROM THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

• Under the MMDR Act, state governments require prior approval of the central government for granting reconnaissance permit, prospecting license, or mining lease for coal and lignite.
• The Ordinance provides that prior approval of the central government will not be required in granting these licenses for coal and lignite, in certain cases.  These include cases where:

(i) the allocation has been done by the central government, and

(ii) the mining block has been reserved by the central or state governments to conserve a mineral.

ADVANCE ACTION FOR AUCTION

• Under the MMDR Act, mining leases for specified minerals (minerals other than coal, lignite, and atomic minerals) are auctioned on the expiry of the lease period.
• The Ordinance provides that state governments can take advance action for auction of a mining lease before its expiry.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE AMENDMENTS

• India is the second largest importer of coal in the world. The amendments will help to increase domestic production of India. It will also help India achieve its targets set. The GoI plans to increase coal production to 1 billion tonnes by 2024. For the financial year 2019-20, the target set is 660 million tonnes.
• It will also encourage private players to participate in the auctions that are to be held to reallocate the captive coal blocks that were cancelled by the Supreme Court in 2014.So far, only 29 of the 204 blocks that were cancelled have been auctioned.
• The country may also benefit from the infusion of sophisticated mining technology, especially for underground mines, if multinationals decide to invest.
• Large investment in mining will create jobs and set off demand in critical sectors such as mining equipment and heavy commercial vehicles.
• The relaxation in regulations, along with previous initiatives such as allowing 100% foreign direct investment through the automatic route in commercial coal production, can aid in boosting coal production in the country and help reduce imports.

OTHER GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS TO BOOST MINING

• Na­tional Min­eral Pol­icy (NMP) was ap­proved in 2019, to ensure trans­parency in the al­lot­ment of min­ing blocks. NMP 2019 emphasizes on themes such as sus­tain­able min­ing, boost­ing ex­plo­ration, en­cour­ag­ing the use of state-of-the-art tech­nol­ogy and skill de­vel­op­ment.
• In Septem­ber 2019, 100% FDI un­der the au­to­matic ap­proval route was allowed for the sale of coal and coal min­ing ac­tiv­i­ties in­clud­ing as­so­ci­ated pro­cess­ing in­fra­struc­ture.

CHALLENGES

• There is no clarity on pricing.Without a remunerative price, few would be willing to invest billions of dollars in the latest mining techniques.
• Miners have to currently pay huge amounts upfront to get a mine after winning an auction. Due to this, often there are no bidders for the auction.
• The other problem is that coal has a‘dirty fuel’ tag and few global lenders are willing to put their money into the sector.

WAY FORWARD

• Over the last few years, ex­plo­ration by pri­vate play­ers has come to a near stand­still. In­ter­ven­tions such as in­tro­duc­ing a seam­less tran­si­tion from ex­plo­ration to min­ing license, per­mit­ting the sale of license at any stage, and al­low­ing pri­vate com­pa­nies to proac­tively ap­proach government of India for ex­plo­ration ar­eas will help over­turn this trend.
• Stream­lin­ing the auc­tion process will also lead to greater ef­fi­ciency and more ef­fec­tive out­comes.
• Min­ing com­pa­nies in In­dia are sub­ject to much higher fi­nan­cial levies than other countries, (due to high roy­alty rates, mul­ti­plic­ity of levies and dou­ble tax­a­tion). Therefore, roy­alty rates should be re­duced in line with in­ter­na­tional bench­marks.
• The government must en­sure that all pol­icy in­ter­ven­tions take cognizance of emerging global trends in min­ing, such as smart mines, deep-sea min­ing and the chang­ing com­po­si­tion of the mining work­force.

CONCLUSION: The amendments are a welcome step towards liberalization of the mining sector and attracting the much needed foreign investment. The liberalized policy will allow global players to look for investment opportunities which in turn will allow the country to leverage their technical capabilities for effective utilisation of natural resources for the benefit of people at large.

INDIAN ART AND CULTURE

1. REVISION SERIES: KOLKALI FOLK DANCE

• Kolkali-Parichakali is a popular folk dance in southern Kerala and Lakshwadeep. Kol refers to stick, and Paricha means shield. The dancers enact fight scenes while holding wooden mock weapons. The performance begins slowly, but gradually increases in tempo until it reaches a frenzy-like climax.
• The dancers move in a circle, striking small sticks and using unique moves to keep time. As the dance progresses, the circle widens and contracts.
• Dancers sing and dance in circles around a Nilavilakku (traditional metal lamp).
• As the accompanying music gradually rises in pitch and the performance reaches its climax, the pace and rhythm of the dance change from phase to phase.

FEATURES:

• Kolkali is a sport in which only men can compete. Women are not permitted to participate in this folk dance. This traditional rule is followed by all island residents.
• ‘Kol’ is a word that means stick.’ The dance is performed with sticks in hands to the beat of the music. As a result, the dance is known as Kolkali, which literally means “stick dance.”
• The dance’s rhythms and circular movements are mesmerizing. The dancers form pairs and move in circles in response to the musical rhythm created by the sticks.
• The sticks are mostly used as props when dancing, and the dancers hold them in their hands.
• Many of the Kolkali characters’ body postures, choreography, and footwork are based directly on Kalarippayattu.
• The kolkali dance begins slowly. As the music develops momentum, it gradually picks up speed and moves toward a quicker pace, portraying their enthusiasm, delight, and ardor. Typically, folk tunes are used to accompany this traditional dance.

INDIAN POLITY AND CONSTITUTION

2. TOWARD LEGALISING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

THE CONTEXT: A Supreme Court Bench led by Chief Justice of India recently issued notices to the Centre and the Attorney General of India, seeking their response to two petitions filed by gay couples to allow solemnisation of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act, (SMA) 1954.

THE EXPLANATION:

About Special Marriage Act, (SMA) 1954:

• The Special Marriage Act, 1954 is an Act of the Parliament of India with provision for civil marriage or “registered marriage”.
• The Act deals with inter-caste and inter-religion marriages.
• Inter caste marriage is a marriage between people of two different castes.
• Inter religion marriage is a marriage between people of two different religions.
• The fundamental requirement under this Act for a valid marriage is the consent of both parties to the marriage.

Applicability:

• Any person, irrespective of religion.
• Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, , Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, or Jews can also perform marriage under the Special Marriage Act, 1954.
• Inter-religion marriages.
• This Act is applicable to the entire territory of India and extends to intending spouses who are both,
• Indian nationals.
• Indian national living abroad.

Conditions for marriage:

• Each party involved should have no other subsisting valid marriage.
• In other words, the resulting marriage should be monogamous for both parties.
• The groom must be at least 21 years old; the bride must be at least 18 years old.
• The parties should be competent in regard to their mental capacity to the extent that they are able to give valid consent for the marriage.
• The parties should not fall within the degree of prohibited relationship.

What is the government’s stand?

• In 2021, while responding to the pleas seeking recognition of same-sex marriages in the Delhi High Court, Solicitor General for the Centre had said that as per the law, marriage was permissible between a “biological man” and “biological woman”.
• In its affidavit opposing the pleas, the Centre had said: “The acceptance of the institution of marriage between two individuals of the same gender is neither recognised nor accepted in any uncodified personal laws or any codified statutory laws”. It also argued against the urgency of the pleas by saying nobody was “dying” in the absence of a marriage certificate.

What about other countries?

• A total of 32 countries around the world have legalised same-sex marriages, some through legislation while others through judicial pronouncements. Many countries first recognised same-sex civil unions as the escalatory step to recognise homosexual marriage.
• Civil unions or partnerships are similar arrangements as marriages which provide legal recognition of unmarried couples of the same or opposite sex in order to grant them some of the rights that come with marriage — such as inheritance, medical benefits, employee benefits to spouses, managing joint taxes and finances, and in some cases even adoption.
• The Netherlands was the first country in 2001 to legalise same-sex marriage by amending one line in its civil marriage law. In some countries, the decriminalisation of homosexuality was not followed for years by the recognition of same-sex marriage, for instance, in the U.S. the former happened in 2003 while the latter in 2015.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

3. WHAT IS BLUEBUGGING, AND HOW IS IT USED TO HACK BLUETOOTH-ENABLED DEVICES?

THE CONTEXT: Recently, cybersecurity experts note that apps that let users connect smartphones or laptops to wireless earplugs can record conversations, and are vulnerable to hacks.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Even the most secure smartphones like iPhones are vulnerable to such attacks.
• Any app with access to Bluetooth can record users’ conversations with Siri and audio from the iOS keyboard dictation feature when using AirPods or Beats headsets, some app developers say. Through a process called bluebugging, a hacker can gain unauthorised access to these apps and devices and control them as per their wish.

What is bluebugging?

• It is a form of hacking that lets attackers access a device through its discoverable Bluetooth connection. Once a device or phone is blue bugged, a hacker can listen to the calls, read and send messages and steal and modify contacts. It started out as a threat for laptops with Bluetooth capability. Later hackers used the technique to target mobile phones and other devices.
• Independent security researcher blogged about the threat of bluebugging as early as 2004. They noted that the bug exploited a loophole in Bluetooth protocol, enabling it to download phone books and call lists from the attacked user’s phone.

How does bluebugging hack devices?

• Bluebugging attacks work by exploiting Bluetooth-enabled devices. The device’s Bluetooth must be in discoverable mode, which is the default setting on most devices. The hacker then tries to pair with the device via Bluetooth.
• Once a connection is established, hackers can use brute force attacks to bypass authentication. They can install malware in the compromised device to gain unauthorised access to it.
• Bluebugging can happen whenever a Bluetooth enabled device is within a 10-metre radius of the hacker. However, according to a blog by VPN service provider NordVPN, hackers can use booster antennas to widen the attack range.

4. WHAT IS SARAS 3?

THE CONTEXT: Recently, a SARAS 3, a radio telescope designed and built at the Raman Research Institute (RRI) here, has provided clues to the nature of the universe’s first stars and galaxies.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Using data from the telescope which has been deployed over the Dandiganahalli Lake and Sharavati backwaters since 2020, astronomers and researchers have been able to determine properties of radio luminous galaxies formed just 200 million years post the Big Bang, a period known as the Cosmic Dawn.
• Researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, along with collaborators at the University of Cambridge and University of Tel Aviv, have used data from SARAS 3 to throw light on the energy output, luminosity, and masses of the first generation of galaxies that are bright in radio wavelengths.

Deeper insight

• “The results from the SARAS 3 telescope are the first time that radio observations of the averaged 21-centimetre line have been able to provide an insight into the properties of the earliest radio loud galaxies that are usually powered by supermassive black holes,” according to researcher.
• Explaining the findings, Professor Singh said SARAS 3 had improved the understanding of astrophysics of Cosmic Dawn by telling astronomers that less than 3% of the gaseous matter within early galaxies was converted into stars, and that the earliest galaxies that were bright in radio emission were also strong in X-rays, which heated the cosmic gas in and around the early galaxies.

About SARAS 3

• SARAS 3 is an indigenously invented and built radio telescope that can detect extremely faint radio wave signals from the depths of time.
• It can detect faint cosmological signals, especially radiation emitted by hydrogen atoms at the 21-cm wavelength (1.4 GHz) arising from the depths of the cosmos.
• Note: Detecting a faint signal from such an early period of the Universe is extremely difficult. The celestial signal is exceptionally faint – buried in sky radio waves that come to us from the gas in our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, which are a million times brighter.

THE PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

5. WHAT IS WET LEASING & DRY LEASING OF AIRCRAFT?

THE CONTEXT: In efforts to boost international air traffic, the civil aviation ministry has allowed Indian airlines to take wide-body planes on wet lease for up to one year. According to sources, that the rules had been relaxed, allowing the wet leasing for a year as opposed to the six months permitted so far.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is wet and dry leasing?

• Wet leasing means taking the plane along with operating crew and engineers, while dry leasing refers to taking only the aircraft on rent.
• “The technical term for wet leasing is ACMI which stands for aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance. These are the aspects of the operation that the wet lease airline takes care of, while the airline client will still be responsible for paying for direct operating costs such catering and fuel as well as fees such as airport fees, ground handling charges and navigation fees.”
• Operations of an aircraft on wet lease are more difficult for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to monitor, which is why it is allowed for shorter durations.

SECURITY AFFAIRS

6. AUSTRA HIND 22

THE CONTEXT: The Austra Hind 22 exercise commenced recently in Rajasthan. It is being held after the 26th edition of the quadrilateral maritime drill Exercise Malabar was concluded off the coast of Japan in early November 2022.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is Austra Hind 22?

• The Austra Hind 22 is a bilateral training exercise between the Indian Army and the Australian Army.
• It is being held from November 28 to December 11 this year in Mahajan Field Firing Ranges (Rajasthan).
• The Australian Army is represented by soldiers from the 13th Brigade of the 2nd Division.
• The Indian side is represented by the troops belonging to the Dogra Regiment.
• This is the inaugural edition of the Austra Hind series. This joint exercise will involve all arms and services contingents of both countries’ armies. It will be hosted alternatively by India and Australia.

What is the objective of this exercise?

• The objective of the Austra Hind series is to build positive military relations between India and Australia. It enables both the Indian Army and the Australian Army to share each other’s best practices. It also seeks to promote interoperability between them while undertaking multi-domain operations in semi-desert terrain under the UN peace enforcement mandate.
• The joint exercise enables the armies of India and Australia to share best practices in tactics, techniques and procedures to conduct tactical operations at the company and platoon levels for neutralizing hostile threats. It will also focus on casualty management, casualty evacuation and logistics planning at battalion or company level. Joint planning, joint tactical drills, sharing of special arms skills and joint raids of hostile entities are also included in this exercise.

About Dogra Regiment

The Dogra Regiment is the Indian Army’s infantry regiment. Its origins can be traced back to the 17th Dogra Regiment of the British Indian Army. It obtained its present name after it was transferred to the Indian Army. This regiment has taken part in all conflicts that occurred after the Indian independence.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTION

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q1. Consider the following statements:
1. Sharavati river is tributary of Cauvery River.
2. Jog falls are formed by this river in Karnataka.
3. Linganamakki dam is built across this river in Tamil Nadu.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only
b) 1 and 2 only
c) 2 only
d) 2 and 3 only

Answer: C

Explanation:

• Sharavati is a river which originates and flows entirely within the state of Karnataka in India. It directly drains into Arabian Sea.
• Famous Jog Falls are formed by this river.
• Linganamakki dam is built across this river.

[WpProQuiz 374]

THE CONTEXT: The government will soon come out with a policy on strategic sectors and simultaneously kick into motion a process of complete privatisation for companies in the non-strategic sectors such as BPCL, Air India, Container Corporation of India, and Shipping Corporation of India.

THE DEVELOPMENT

In a big step towards privatisation of many state-owned firms, the Modi government has identified 18 strategic sectors, including banking, insurance, steel, fertiliser, petroleum and defence equipment, where it will retain only a limited presence. If implemented in its entirety, it will mean the government is completely exiting non-strategic sectors through privatisation or strategic disinvestment. Even in strategic sectors, there will be a maximum of four public sector units and a minimum of one unit operating.

This is the first time since 1956 that the government has said it will not have state-owned companies in the non-strategic sector — and that the number in the strategic sectors too, would be reduced.
Banking, insurance, defence, and energy are likely to be part of the strategic sector list.

What are Strategic and Non-strategic Sectors of India?

• An industry is considered strategic if it has large innovative spillovers and if it provides a substantial infrastructure for other firms in the same or related industries.
• Earlier, the strategic sectors were defined on the basis of industrial policy.
• The government classified Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) as ‘strategic’ and ‘non-strategic’ on the basis of industrial policy that keeps on changing from time-to-time.

According to this, the Strategic sector PSUs are:

• Arms & Ammunition of defence equipment
• Defence aircraft & warships
• Atomic energy
• Applications of radiation to agriculture, medicine and non-strategic industry
• Railways

Banking, insurance, defence, and energy are likely to be part of the strategic sector list. All other PSUs apart from the strategic sectors fall under Non-strategic Sector including Power Discoms.

Disinvestment vs Privatization

• Disinvestment, or divestment, refers to the act of a business or government selling or liquidating an asset or subsidiary or the process of dilution of a government’s stake in a PSU (Public Sector Undertaking).
• Disinvestment indicates only a partial dilution of control by the Govt and still retaining overall ownership of a particular enterprise, whereas privatisation for all purposes signify relinquishing the entire ownership in favour of private parties.

Details of the new PSU Policy

Announcing the Atmanirbhar Bharat economic support package in May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the proposed policy would notify the list of strategic sectors requiring the presence of at least one state-owned company along with the private sector.
This is expected to be a long-term process rather than a one-time move on the privatisation of companies. After inter-ministerial consultations to finalise strategic sectors, the policy will be put up before approval of the Union Cabinet.
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) functioning under the finance ministry, which moved a cabinet proposal in July on ‘Redefining Public Sector Participation in Commercial Sector Enterprise’, has classified 18 strategic sectors into three broad segments — mining and exploration, manufacturing, processing and generation, and the services sector.

1. In the mining and exploration segment, the areas where government will retain limited presence are coal, crude oil and gas, and minerals and metals.
2. Similarly, in manufacturing, processing and generation segment, the areas where the government will retain limited presence are defence equipment, steel, petroleum (refinery and marketing), fertilisers, power generation, atomic energy and ship building.
3. And, in the services sector, the areas identified are — power transmission, space, development and operation of airports, ports, highways and warehouses and gas transportation and logistics (not including gas and petro-chemicals trading), contract and construction and technical consultancy services related to strategic sectors and subsectors, financial services for infrastructure, export credit guarantee, energy and housing sectors, telecommunications and IT, banking and insurance.

The biggest fallout is expected to be on sectors like banking, where a large number of state-owned banks operate. Even after the merger of 10 state-owned banks into four last year, and the mergers in 2017 and 2018, there are still 12 state-owned banks in India.

Private investors can prove to be a game-changer

• According to the plan, even in sectors that the government proposes to continue its presence, it will hold only that much stake in a firm that is required to retain control.
• But the timing of the government’s exit will depend on a number of factors, including market conditions and the feasibility of the proposal.
• Government has said that private sector participation will infuse private capital, technology, innovation and bring in best management practices.
  o The privatisation will give a big boost to the economy by generating jobs.
  o The sectors have huge potential, which is not being realised now because of various reasons. Private investors can prove to be a game-changer in such a scenario.
• According to the DIPAM proposal, unlocking of resources by strategic disinvestment of public sector enterprises could be used to finance social sector and development programmes.
• India has 348 public sector enterprises and the net worth of the government’s holdings in these firms is around Rs 7 lakh crore, according to government estimates. If implemented in its entirety, it would be the government’s most ambitious disinvestment plan since 2000 when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had started the process of completely exiting public sector firms.

Mix of further mergers of banks and privatisation likely

• The finance ministry will notify the policy within one month of cabinet approval. However, the actual implementation will take much longer. Initially, steps will have to be taken to bring down stakes in these PSUs and eventually exit.
• On the banking sector, the government’s first priority at present is to offload its remaining stake in IDBI Bank as announced in the budget.
  o In 2018, the Life Insurance Corporation had picked up a majority stake in the bank leaving the government with around 46 per cent shareholding.
  o The state-owned life insurer infused Rs 21,624 crore into the bank.
• Hence, there could be a mix of further mergers among banks and privatisation to bring down the number of state-owned banks to four.
• A holding company structure could also be used to house equity of smaller banks in one entity.
• The government has shifted its focus to having a few very large banks under its fold, and a decision regarding the smaller banks is expected after the policy is unveiled.

Where the policy will not apply

• Sources in the government said the proposed policy will not apply to autonomous organisations or trusts, regulatory authorities, refinancing institutions — many of which have been created through Acts of Parliament — such as major port trusts, Airports Authority of India, among others.
• It will also not apply to central public sector enterprises that provide support to vulnerable groups through financing of SCs, STs, minorities and backward classes, security printing and minting, organisations like railways and posts that undertake commercial operations with a development mandate.
• Department and organisations like railways, airports, ports and National Highways Authority of India, which are not covered under this policy but have undertaken asset monetisation or privatisation of various operations or activities, will continue to do all these.

But why not disinvest, rather than privatize?

• The government’s disinvestment strategy fail to address the basic issue, one of maximising value for taxpayer monies.
• Government equity in PSUs is nothing but capital invested by India’s taxpayers — it is therefore incumbent on the government to ensure maximum value for the investment made.
• A disinvestment programme, which is linked to a budgetary revenue target, is simply inefficient way of achieving it. Markets have cycles and a budgetary target necessitates equity sale even during weak market years.
• The result is either extraction of less-than-optimum value or (as is the case very often) a left-pocket right-pocket transaction of PSUs (and/or LIC) picking up disinvestment offers.
• Another problem in disinvestment is that it does not ensure a change in management of the enterprise. To make PSUs efficient, there is a need to bring in private management that runs it with the aim of maximizing profit.
• The Centre has had some success with disinvestment over the years. Of late, most of the disinvestments are funded by the Life Insurance Corporation of India.
• Thus, privatization is important and disinvestment a second-best alternative that yields revenues for the Centre, but does not improve the condition of the enterprise.

Benefits of privatisation

• The main argument for privatisation is that private companies have a profit incentive to cut costs and be more efficient.
• Most PSUs are making losses and are funded by the largesse of taxpayers. The public resources spent on them could be better utilized elsewhere, especially for development.
• Selling them can also yield non-tax revenue, which could be used to augment public infrastructure. Moreover, their turnaround by the private sector can generate tax revenue for the government.
• It is argued that political interference make poor economic managers. They are motivated by political pressures rather than sound economic and business sense. Private sector is free from such unavoidable interference.
• A government many think only in terms of the Short-term view or next election. Therefore, they may be unwilling to invest in infrastructure improvements which will benefit the firm in the long term.
• It is argued that a private firm has pressure from shareholders to perform efficiently. A state-owned firm doesn’t have this pressure and so it is easier for them to be inefficient.
• Often privatisation of state-owned monopolies occurs alongside deregulation and increase the competitiveness of the market. It is this increase in competition that can be the greatest spur to improvements in efficiency. For example, there is now more competition in telecoms and distribution of gas and electricity.

Arguments against Privatisation

Private Sector is Inefficient too

• There are some good number of PSEs that are not loss-making enterprises; instead, some of them generate revenues. If PSEs are allowed to grow in an independent way, managers of these enterprises are expected to respond according to the changed requirements.
• Further, there is no evidence that can suggest that the Indian private sector performs satisfactorily. Private sector is inefficient too.
• During 1950-1990, India’s private industrialists functioned under the protective umbrella without putting much effort in increasing factor productivity. These industrialists felt no urgency in modernising their industries; they used old and obsolete technology which made this sector an inefficient one.
• There is no statistical evidence that can show a positive relationship between ownership and performance. In fact, performance is not be related to the ownership of industries.
• What is needed is the competitive environment in which any sector public sector and private sector can grow.

Financial burden in future

• There are so many private industries that are lying sick. Sometimes, private industrialists deliberately make their organisations ‘sick’—so that they can receive financial help from public sector institutions to tide over the crisis.

Infrastructures may not grow in Abundance

• Economic growth crucially depends on the growth of infrastructures. Infrastructures both economic and social and economic growth are positively linked to each other.
• Since infrastructure investments are lumpy in character, private capital shies away from such investments and thrives on state- support infrastructures.
• Therefore, move towards greater and greater privatisation means country’s slow and haphazard growth of infrastructural facilities.

Public interest

• There are many industries which perform an important public service, e.g., health care, education and public transport. In these industries, the profit motive shouldn’t be the primary objective of firms and the industry.

Problem of regulating private monopolies

• A natural monopoly occurs when the most efficient number of firms in an industry is one. For example, tap water has very significant fixed costs. Therefore, there is no scope for having competition amongst several firms. Therefore, in this case, privatisation would just create a private monopoly which might seek to set higher prices which exploit consumers.
• This needs effective regulations to prevent abuse of monopoly power. Therefore, there is still need for government regulation, similar to under state ownership.

Peripheral Social Responsibility

• Private sector is completely guided by the profit motive. This sector will invest in those areas that yield quick return the low priority industries.
• Above all, social responsibility or welfare objective of business is side-lined by the private industrialists.

Danger of Employment Loss

• Employment loss seems to be another argument against privatisation as far as present employment scenario is concerned.
• In the name of more and more profit, private industrialists have adopted ‘hire and fire’ policy of employment as well as labour-saving technologies.
• Further, private businessmen exploit workers in many forms (like extending working hours or increasing work load, sabotaging the power of the workers to negotiate with the employers, etc.). All these impact on wages. Income inequality, thus, gets widened.

Alternatives to privatisation (With past examples)

A firesale privatisation, as is prescribed by free market evangelists, is an also less efficient method of value maximization, besides being completely impractical in India’s political economy. Neither disinvestment nor the few outright privatisations that have taken place seem to have really maximised value for the key shareholder — the taxpayer of India.
The case for privatisation is trickierand the trick lies likely elsewhere – in control. Within the Indian landscape, there are examples, albeit few, where significant (or even majority) government ownership has not prevented the company from creating enormous value for shareholders. Since Independence, while most government-funded enterprises were set up as public sector undertakings, mostly under enabling legislations, there were other models explored too.

1. Maruti Udyog was set up as a Joint Venture of the government of India with Suzuki of Japan, with the latter initially holding a minority stake. But the cornerstone of the structure was on management control – government, despite its majority stake, allowed a very substantial amount of management and operational freedom to Suzuki to manage the company on commercial lines.
2. A second model used often, mostly in financial services, has been that of indirect ownership — via other PSUs while allowing private sector-level management and operational freedoms. The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI), the erstwhile parent company of ICICI Bank was set up as a joint venture of public sector banks, insurance companies and the World Bank.
3. UTI Bank (known as Axis Banknow) was sponsored by the government owned UTI-1, a special purpose vehicle created out of the restructuring of Unit Trust of India.
4. HDFC, the mortgage lender, was initially sponsored by ICICI, with minority shareholdings with IFC (part of the World Bank group) and the Prince Aga Khan foundation.

WAY FORWARD: Given the stupendous success of all three examples quoted above – all four are market leaders in their respective business lines and have created enormous amount of wealth not only for their private shareholders but also for the Indian taxpayer (who directly and/or indirectly owns significant parts of these companies).
While there would be several reasons for the success, a key common thread running across all the four cases is one of management control. The respective management teams (and/or minority stakeholders with domain expertise) were given full flexibility to run the enterprises on commercial lines.

CONCLUSION: In a country like India, Privatization in today’s concept is seen as a means of increasing output, improving quality, reducing unit costs, curbing public spending and raising cash to reduce public debt. However, privatisation takes a number of forms and has been approached in various ways with both pros and cons. Disadvantages of privatization should be balanced with proper rules and regulations. Privatisation must be accompanied by competition in the post-privatised scenario. In order to improve the performance of inefficient units, the creation of a competitive market environment is absolutely essential. Moreover, Privatisation of Public sector enterprises is a viable option only in case of ‘value subtracting enterprises’ but the process must not be in haste, just for the sake of meeting the disinvestment targets set by the Finance Ministry.

[WpProQuiz 373]

THE CONTEXT: The government has set its sights on an aggressive plan to sell its equity holdings in State-owned enterprises from which it hopes to rake in Rs 1.75 trillion. In order to so, the govt has significantly widened the scope of its privatization plan by unveiling a new policy for strategic disinvestment of public sector enterprises that will provide a clear roadmap for disinvestment in all non-strategic and strategic sectors.

THE PRESENT PRIVATISATION POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT

Fulfilling the governments’ commitment under the AtmaNirbhar Package of coming up with a policy of strategic disinvestment of public sector enterprises, with following feature

• Strategic Sector : Bare minimum presence of the public sector enterprises and remaining to be privatised or merged or subsidiarized with other CPSEs or closed.
• Strategic sector :an industries considered strategic if it has large innovative spill overs and if it provides a substantial infrastructure for other forum in the same or related industry
• Following 4 sectors to come under it :

• • • Atomic energy, Space and Defence
    • Transport and Telecommunications
    • Power, Petroleum, Coal and other minerals
    • Banking, Insurance and financial services
• Non- Strategic Sector : In this sector, CPSEs will be privatised, otherwise shall be closed.

Non-strategic sector

• will include hotel and tourist services transportation vehicle and equipment industrial and consumer goods trading and marketing and transport and logistics

The policy of government on the 18 strategic sectors Other sectors

18 strategic sectors under 3 different classificatory types are

• mining and exploration
• processing and generation and
• the service sector

Policy regarding PSU by the govt

• Govt will completely exit non-strategic sector
• in strategic sector govt will keep maximum of 1-4 PSU and subsequently opt for strategic disinvestment

PRIVATISATION OF PSU SINCE 2014 INCLUDING BANKS

With the increase of supply of PSU stocks and the constrained investor appetite had started affecting the prices. The trade-off between the political objective to privatize and revenue maximization was witnessed the most in this period. Resultantly, the government resort to Strategic Sales.

However, in departure from past govt is also disinvesting profit making venture with a rationale that disinvestment of profit-making enterprises by public offering of shares is desirable as it leads to dispersed shareholding and avoids concentration of economic power.

However, in case of bank , an amalgamation policy was followed which reduced the number of national bank from 28 to 12 by merging various bank .

• But even after this there was no meaningful resolution of NPA crisis.
  • In fact, post the covid crisis this problem will increase as small banks are facing the problem of balancing credit growth and risk.
  • With the spectre of insolvencies looming at the start of pandemic-led lockdown, there was a flight of deposits from small banks to bigger ones.
• In view of this , the govt has focused on to take PSBs out of government control

Overall approach

Since 2014, Modi government’s strategic disinvestment approach was to sell minority stakes in public companies to raise revenue, while retaining management control. During the 2014-2019 period, the government raised Rs. 2,79,622 crore from the disinvestment of public sector enterprises (PSEs), compared to Rs 1,07,833 crore collected during 2004-14. However, this has changed now. Recently, five companies were up for 100 per cent disinvestment, including three large profitable companies such as Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), the Container Corporation of India and the Shipping Corporation.

THE EVOLUTION OF PSU SINCE 1956 TO 1999

Historical antecedents: Industrial Policy in India

• National Economic Planning Committee set up by the All India Congress Committee in 1937 : suggested vigorous efforts for India’s industrial development through a mixed economy with a dominant role for the public sector.
• Peoples Plan’ prepared by Mr M N Roy: all-in-all role to public sector and financing of the industrial plan through internal resources
• Bombay Plan (Tata-Birla plan) recommended government support for industrialization, including a direct role in the production of capital goods. It had called for a substantial role of the private sector in the industrial development
• Defence of India Rules (interim rule ): The plan suggested by the interim government for industrial development categorized industries into four divisions of which two were exclusively reserved for public sector and these related to core and heavy industrial sectors. Of the remaining two, public and private sectors were allowed access to intermediate industries forming the third sector while the consumer goods industry was reserved for the private sector

[ Trivia : first Industrial Policy Statement of 1948 was a restatement of the 1945 categorization as adopted by the interim government.]

Industrial Policy Statement – 1948

Industries were divided into four broad categories

• Exclusive State: Monopoly included the manufacture of arms and ammunition, production and control of atomic energy and the ownership and management of railway transport
• State Monopoly for New Units
• State Regulated category
• Unregulated private enterprises

Industrial Policy Resolution – 1956

• It was shaped by the Mahalanobis Model of growth, which suggested that emphasis on heavy industries would lead the economy towards a long term higher growth path. The Resolution widened the scope of the public sector. The objective was to accelerate:
• Bombay Plan prepared by leading Indian industrialists in 1944-45 had recommended government support for industrialization, including a direct role in the production of capital goods.
• economic growth and boost the process of industrialization as a means to achieving a socialistic pattern of society.
• The Industrial Policy Resolution – 1956 classified industries into three categories

• The first category comprised 17 industries exclusively under the domain of the Government. These included inter alia, railways, air transport, arms and ammunition, iron and steel and atomic energy.
• The second category comprised 12 industries , which were envisaged to be progressively State owned but private sector was expected to supplement the efforts of the State.
• The third category contained all the remaining industries and it was expected that private sector would initiate development of these industries but they would remain open for the State as well industries but they would remain open for the State as well

Despite the demarcation of industries into separate categories, the Resolution was flexible enough to allow the required adjustments and modifications in the national interest.

Industrial Policy Measures in the 1960s and 1970s

• Industrial Licensing Policy Inquiry Committee (Dutt Committee), constituted in 1967, recommended that larger industrial houses should be given licenses only for setting up industry in core and heavy investment sectors, thereby necessitating reorientation of industrial licensing policy.
• The new Industrial Licensing Policy of 1970 classified industries into four categories.
• First category, termed as ‘Core Sector’, consisted of basic, critical and strategic industries.
• Second category termed as ‘Heavy Investment Sector’, comprised projects involving investment of more than Rs.50 million.
• The third category, the ‘Middle Sector’ consisted of projects with investment in the range of Rs.10 million to Rs.50 million.
• The fourth category was ‘De- licensed Sector’, in which investment was less than Rs.10 million and was exempted from licensing requirements.

The industrial licensing policy of 1970 confined the role of large business houses and foreign companies to the core, heavy and export oriented sectors.

Industrial Policy Statement – 1980

The industrial Policy Statement of 1980 placed accent on promotion of competition in the domestic market, technological up-gradation and modernization of industries

A number of measures were initiated towards technological and managerial modernization to improve productivity, quality and to reduce cost of production. The public sector was freed from a number of constraints and was provided with greater autonomy. There was some progress in the process of deregulation during the 1980s. In 1988, all industries, excepting 26 industries specified in the negative list, were exempted from licensing. The exemption was, however, subject to investment and locational limitations. The automotive industry, cement, cotton spinning, food processing and polyester filament yarn industries witnessed modernization and expanded scales of production during the 1980s.

PRIVATISATION FROM 1991 TO 2014 AND PROS AND CONS

Phases of Disinvestment Policy in India

Phase 1 91 to 99

Disinvestment was mainly through Sale of Minority Shareholding in CPSEs. Mostly, the auction method was adopted for the sale of minority shareholding, though Global Depository Receipts issues have been resorted to as well in the last two years of that phase. There were no Strategic Sales in this period. Ideological focus was on gradual privatization.

Further the focus was also on modernization of PSUs, in order to increase their ‘efficiency’ while protecting the interests of employees. But, the main aim was to mitigate fiscal deficits of the government. It never focused on revenue maximization.

However with Rangarajan Committee a shift from public offerings to strategic / trade sales was witnessed in the field of core and non-core.

Phase 2 99 to 03

The ambit of disinvestment was widened the most during the second phase. Targets higher than ever before were set, a Department of Disinvestment was constituted on 10th December, 1999 and later a full-fledged ministry was set up, an aggressive disinvestment policy was pursued and the government exited several PSUs completely.

Consequently, with higher supply of  PSUs’ shares in still-developing market, prices of equity sold were low, subsequently destroying the value of PSUs, resulting in  government failure to achieve the disinvestment targets.

Phase 3 03 to 009

The government adopted the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) and following are the aspects of the programme that related to the public sector5:

• Government was to retain the existing “Navratna” companies.
• The programme stated that profit making PSUs will not be privatized and in line with this disinvestment through strategic sale of profit making CPSEs was called off.
• Public Sector companies and nationalized banks were encouraged to enter the capital market to raise resources and offer new investment avenues to retail investors.

There were no targets fixed and the total receipts. Disinvestment was majorly done through the Offer for Sale or Sale route . It was in this phase that the National Investment Fund (NIF) was constituted. All the proceeds from disinvestment of central PSUs were transferred into this fund and 75% of the annual collections of the fund had to be invested in social sectors. The management of it was assigned to public sector mutual funds.

Phase 5 09-14

The disinvestment process restarted with full vigor but the government didn’t resort to the Strategic Sale route. In most years, the sale of minority shares was done through offer for sale.

How not to disinvest?

A model is followed in India , which neither qualifies as disinvestment nor privatisation. In such transaction—where one PSU is buying out another take place. This result in a transfer of resources already with the public sector to the government and did not lead to any change in the stake of the public sector or government in disinvested PSUs. It can be seen as merely money making exercise  merely money-making measures.(ONGC-LIC, HPCL-ONGC)

Further, government is not exiting completely in many of the PSU thus creating contrived confusion in the policy framework( Air India )

THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PRIVATISATION POLICY BY THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT

Is privatization of bank panacea for success

• Private players in the financial sector are prone to failure: this fact gave the world economic shock of astronomical proportion, which was overreaching created by private bank
• Private banks fail all the time In the 20 years from 2001 to 2020, as many as 559 private banks with assets of $721 billion failed in the US
• The principle followed by private banks is when they make profits, it goes to shareholders: When they make losses, it gets socialised and falls in the lap of the government to make good the deposits either through insurance or taxpayer bailout. (Yes Bank, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), bailed out the above bank.)
• Big private banks can fail any time: There is a myth that if a bank gets large enough, it will not fail. While one can agree that the larger the bank, the greater its ability to absorb losses, this does not mean it cannot fail. The axiom “Higher you go, harder the fall” applies best to private banks. Yes Bank, Citi Bank, Washington Mutual Bank are all such examples.

Looking at the larger interest

• The move towards divesting ownership in strategic sectors will have long term consequences. A diluted public sector would possibly mean that India missing out on the opportunity to capitalise on the global distrust against Chinese supply lines in the wake of the current crisis.
• Moreover the valuation of PSU is at the all time low. At the start of NDA-2 the valuation of PSU at the BSE was 22% which has reduced to 9.4% at oct 2020.
• At present, because of the crisis presented by the pandemic, it is highly unlikely that more than 10 per cent of the shares of the LIC is subscribed, as the market may not be able to absorb more.

whether privatisation is the only option for PSUs

PSU models in different countries

PSUs exist virtually everywhere. In, Asia where PSUs have played an important role in shaping the economy. According to OECD report ,PSUs pull plenty of economic might —

• in China they account for 30% of GDP,
• in Vietnam 38%,
• and they account for roughly a fourth of GDP in India and Thailand.
• PSUs are also big employers in many of these countries — 15% in China, 5% in Malaysia.
• PSUs play an important role in BRIICS economies.
  • According to a recent KPMG report, of the 2,000 largest companies globally, 260 are from BRIICS economies.
  • About 123 or 47% of the largest BRIICS enterprises are PSU. The market value of PSU amounts to 32% of GNIs (gross national income) among all BRIICS countries.

All the above example shows that privatization is not the only panacea for bringing efficiency, improving productivity , and building productive assets.

THE GLOBAL PRACTICES

Reshaping the PSU buy other countries

Three former planned economies have set up centralized holding entities — SASAC in China in 2003, SCIC in Vietnam in 2007 and Druk Holdings and Investments in Bhutan. In 2006, the Philippines pioneered the development of an PSU governance scorecard which has become an important tool for pushing PSU reforms. Since 2004, Malaysia has rolled out a comprehensive ‘transformation programme” to overhaul its PSUs.

An incorporated holding company Temasek to better manage its assets on a commercial basis was launched in Singapore . This allowed its Ministry of Finance to focus on policymaking. At inception, Temasek’s initial portfolio was of S$354 million, spanning 35 companies. Thereafter began the process of restructuring SOEs. Some were corporatized and privatized, others were allowed to go for big global expansions.

THE CHINA EXAMPLE: 

In 2003, a holding company, the State-Owned Assets Supervision & Administration Commission (SASAC) was created to manage the SoEs. The agency, which controls nearly 100 of the largest SOEs, lies “at the heart of China’s industrial deep state

WAY FORWARD: WHAT INDIA CAN LEARN?

Negative bids :

• The government should permit negative bids: a bid where government pays someone to take the company off its hands. Negative bids were an important part of the massive privatization which took place in Germany after the end of socialism and helped to get productive assets rapidly into the hands of efficient managers in the private sector.

MOU models :

• In  South Korea PSUs with high social obligation operates with private sectors wit the help Of MOUs.
• But one of the most important thing, that is forgotten in the outright privatization of CPSUs is that it is unaccompanied by the necessary reforms in the overall regulatory framework in which they operate. Reforms of the regulatory frameworks and the markets are crucial for the performance of both PSUs and private companies, ensuring a rule-based competitive structure covering entry, exit, bankruptcy and competition among existing companies, as manifested by the the British privatization of 1980s and 90s.

CONCLUSION:

While experience of other countries is available to India by way of guidance, it would have to evolve its own techniques, best suited to its level of development. The historic, cultural, and institutional context influences the way in which and the pace at which privatization is implemented. Where market economy is not fully developed, ways would have to be found to safeguard the interests of consumers and investors, which would ensure a fuller play to the wealth-creating role of the entrepreneurs.

INDIAN POLITY AND CONSTITUTION

1. THE CONSTITUTION DAY

THE CONTEXT: On this day 73 years ago, the Constitution of India was adopted, coming into effect on January 26, 1950. Since 2015, the day has been observed as Constitution Day, or ‘Samvidhan Diwas’.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The Constituent Assembly took two years, 11 months and 17 days to draft the Constitution for Independent India. During this period, it held 11 sessions covering 165 days, and its members submitted around 7,600 amendments to the draft Constitution.
• It was for good reasons that the drafting of India’s Constitution was such a mammoth exercise — it was to determine how a newly independent, newly dismembered nation would define and govern itself. As the exercise went on, many questions were raised about the Constitution, including over its approach to federalism, to the protection of minorities’ rights, and over the fact that it had borrowed heavily from other Constitutions around the world.
• Dr BR Ambedkar, the Constitution’s chief architect, addressed the criticism in his speech on November 4, 1948, when introducing the Draft Constitution in the Constituent Assembly. Here are his responses on four issues: on the draft Constitution being ‘unoriginal’, over its treatment of minorities, over it not representing the “ancient polity of India”; and on its approach to fundamental rights.

Few Interesting facts:

• The present-day Constitution of India was drafted by the then Chairman of the drafting committee, Dr B. R Ambedkar, B.N Rau (the Constitutional advisor to the Constituent Assembly), and Surendranath Mukherjee (the Chief Draftsman of the Constituent Assembly). The powers vested in the Constitution that was drafted were that it superseded the Government of India Act of 1935 and the Indian Independence Act of 1947.
• According to the preamble, the Constitution of India pursues the resolution taken as an oath to constitute India into a “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic”. Sovereignty means supreme and ultimate power. The objectives of the preamble are to secure justice, liberty, and equality for all citizens. The signatories to the Constitution included Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhai Patel, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, including 284 constituent assembly members.
• The Chief Advisor of the Constitution was Sir Benegal Narsing Rau, an ICS who was the first Indian judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and President of the United Nations Security Council. Sir Rau had prepared the initial draft of the Constitution. Dr B. R Ambedkar acknowledged the contributions of Sir Rau in his speech on November 25, 1949.

FAQs:

Who decorated the original version of the Constitution?

Beohar Rammanohar Sinha and Nandalal Bose and artists from Shantiniketan.

Who was the calligrapher of the Constitution?

Prem Behari Narain Raizada.

SOCIAL ISSUES AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

2. MULTIDIMENSIONAL INTEGRATED STABILISATION MISSION IN MALI (MINUSMA)

THE CONTEXT: India has decided to send a utility helicopter unit to the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Bangladesh and Pakistan will each send an armed helicopter unit to this operation.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is MINUSMA?

• The Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission that was set up in 2013 by the UNSC to stabilize the western African country after the 2012 Tuareg rebellion.
• This mission was set up to assist in the political processes of Mali and undertake numerous security-related tasks within the conflict-hit country. It is tasked with supporting the transitional authorities of Mali in achieving the political stabilization and implementing the transitional roadmap.
• In 2014, the UNSC expanded the scope of the mission to ensure security for the citizens, supporting national political dialogue and reconciliation, assisting in the re-establishment of state authority, and protecting human rights in the country.

What are the challenges faced by the mission?

• Since its launch, MINUSMA has become the most dangerous peacekeeping mission of the UN. It has caused the deaths of 292 peacekeepers till date. Besides MINUSMA, there are two other international peace operations in Mali. These are the EU’s  EUCAP Sahel Mali and EUTM Mali missions.
• Several countries are currently pulling out of the MINUSMA because of the high fatality rate. France and Egypt have completed their troop withdrawal in the early 2022. Germany announced that it will be withdrawing its 595 personal by May 2023. Britain is also planning to pull out its 249 personnel from this mission. Ivory Coast has also announced the withdrawal of its 898 personnel after the current deployment ends because of its dispute with the Mali government over the arrest of its personnel who went on a mission not related to the United Nations.

What is India’s role in MINUSMA?

• India currently does not have troops deployed with MINUSMA. However, 18 Indians worked with it as of September this year. It is currently planning on deploying a utility helicopter unit that will provide assistance in early warning and rapid response to protect civilians.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

3. WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INDICATORS 2022

THE CONTEXT: The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) recently released the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2022.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is the World Intellectual Property Indicators?

The World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) is an authoritative report that provides an overview of activities in areas of patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, microorganisms, plant variety protection, geographical indications and creative economy. It is released every year by WIPO. The WIPI 2022 compiled the data from around 150 national and regional intellectual property offices across the globe.

What are the key findings of the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2022?

• In 2021, around 3.4 million patent applications were filed across the world. This is a 3.6 per cent increase from the previous year.
• The top two countries with highest number of patent filings are India and China.
• Local patenting activities in the US, Japan and Germany have declined in 2021.
• The European Patent Office (EPO) and South Africa made significant contributions to the overall growth of patents.
• India received 61,573 patent applications last year, an increase from 56,771 in 2020.
• Almost 43 per cent of the Indian patent applications are local and filed by resident applicants. Some 18.5 per cent of total published applications in the country are related to pharmaceuticals.
• According to this report, 57.3 per cent of the patent applications filed in India were by non-residents. The share of non-resident applications is very high in countries like Australia (90.8%), Canada (87.3%), the EPO (55.6%), the United States (55.7%), Brazil (80.7%), Indonesia (84.1%), Mexico (93.1%) and Singapore (86.1%).
• India recorded a 16.5 per cent growth in patent grants in 2021. However, the percentage of the pending patent applications has increased to 91.5 percent during the same period.
• India also witnessed a 6.7 per cent increase in the filing of the number of trademark applications. About 42.4 per cent of non-resident trademark filing in Indian offices were from the US, China and Germany.
• China, the US, the EU, India and the UK accounted for some 65 per cent of the worldwide trademark filings.

THE PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

4. WHAT IS PROJECT 22220?

THE CONTEXT: Russia recently launched a nuclear-powered icebreaker named Yakutia at Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. It is the fourth icebreaker to be developed under Project 22220.

THE EXPLANATION:

About Project 22220

• Project 22220 is a series of nuclear-powered icebreakers developed by Russia.
• This project’s icebreaker is 173.3 meters long and 34 meters broad with a 33,500-tonne displacement.
• These nuclear-powered icebreakers are currently the most powerful and the largest in the world.
• Their purpose is to provide year-round navigation in the western part of the Arctic. They can escort ships on the Northern Sea Route.
• These icebreakers’ dual-draft design allows them to navigate in ice and in polar river deltas. They are the core of Russia’s civil icebreaker fleet.
• As of November 2022, three Project 22220 icebreakers are in service. These are Arktika, Sibir and Ural. Arktika – the lead ship of this series – was delivered in 2020.
• Yakutiya is the fourth in this series. The fifth, named Chukotka, has been laid out at the Baltic Shipyard.
• The sixth and seventh vessels of this series are currently at the planning stage.
• These ships will replace the nuclear-powered icebreakers of Projects 10520 and 10580, which are at the end of their service lives or at the brink of being phased out.

What is North Sea Route?

• According to Russia, the North Sea Route is a shipping lane stretching from the Kara Sea to the Pacific Ocean. It runs along the Russian Arctic coast from the Kara Gates strait situated in between the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea, along Siberia to the Bering Strait. It has several alternative passages and routes between Novaya Zemlya and the Bering Strait.
• This route is expected to provide Russia numerous strategic and commercial advantages. For instance, the shipping journey via this route will reduce the distance between Shanghai and Netherlands’ Rotterdam – the largest commercial port of Europe – by almost 22 per cent. This route will bring down the transportation cost by 30 to 40 per cent.

5. 200TH CONSECUTIVE LAUNCH OF RH200

THE CONTEXT: ISRO successfully made the 200th consecutive launch of the multipurpose sounding rocket RH200 from Thiruvananthapuram’s Thumba coast.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is RH200?

• RH200, which is capable of climbing to a height of 70 km, is a two-stage multipurpose sounding rocket capable of carrying scientific payloads into space.
• The 200 in the name denotes the diameter of the rocket in millimetre.
• This 3.5-meter tall rocket belongs to the Rohini rocket family. It is used by ISRO for atmospheric studies.
• The first and second stages of this rocket are powered by solid motors.
• This rocket is currently playing a major role in providing a flexible platform for experiments and testing of new technologies.
• Initially, it used polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-based propellant. The first RH200 to use the new propellant based on hydroxyl-terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB) was launched successfully from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in 2020.

What is a sounding rocket?

• A sounding rocket, which is sometimes known as a research rocket or suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket that is capable of taking measurements and performing scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. It is used to launch instruments from 48 to 145 km altitude from the Earth’s surface.

About India’s sounding rockets

• The first sounding rocket to be launched in India was American Nike-Apache. This historic launch happened on November 21, 1963. Following this, two-stage rockets imported from Russia (M-100) and France (Centaure) were launched.
• Rohini RH-75 – the first indigenously developed sounding rocket – was launched by ISRO in 1967. Since then, these rockets have been launched from both the TERLS and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. In 1975, all of ISRO’s sounding rocket activities came under the purview of the Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme.

Currently, the RH-200, RH-300-Mk-II and RH-560-Mk-III are operational.  They can carry payloads ranging from 8 to 100 kg and an apogee range of 80 to 475 km.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTION

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q1. Consider the following statements:

1. Surcharge is the additional tax levied on overall income of individual or company.
2. Cess is levied for raising the revenue for specific purpose.
3. The Constitution of India grants the power to the Union government only to raise revenue by levying cess.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 and 2 only

b) 2 and 3 only

c) 3 only

d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: B

Explanation:

• A surcharge (or additional charge) is essentially a tax levied on a tax. It is calculated on payable tax, not on income generated. So a surcharge of, say, 10 per cent on an existing tax rate of 30 per cent effectively raises the total tax rate to 33%.
• Cess is a form of tax and an additional levy by the Central Government to raise funds for specific purposes. E.g. GST Compensation Cess, Coal cess etc.
• The Constitution of India grants the power to the Union government only to raise revenue by levying cess.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. RUSSIA’S NUCLEAR ICEBREAKERS AND MILITARISATION OF THE ARCTIC

THE CONTEXT: Recently, Russian President virtually presided over the launch and flag raising ceremony of two nuclear-powered icebreakers at St. Petersburg and said such icebreakers were of “strategic importance”. As climate change opens up the Arctic giving access to new routes and resources, there is a race by adjoining countries to build up their militaries and Russia has a clear lead over them.

THE EXPLANATION:

Why are the Russian icebreakers significant?

• According to the President, the icebreakers were laid down as part of their large-scale, systematic work to re-equip and replenish the domestic icebreaker fleet, to strengthen Russia’s status as a “great Arctic power.” The 173.3-metre-long‘Yakutia’, with a displacement of up to 33,540 tonnes, was launched into water and can break through three metres of ice.The flag was raised on another vessel Ural, which is expected to become operational in December, while the Yakutia will join service by end-2024.
• There are two already similar vessels in service, Arktika and Sibir. He said that a much more powerful 209-metre-long nuclear icebreaker “Rossiya,” displacing up to 71,380 tonnes, would be completed by 2027. In the last two decades, Russia has reactivated several Soviet era Arctic military bases and upgraded its capabilities.

Why are countries racing towards the Arctic?

• There has been a race among Arctic states and near-Arctic states to augment their capabilities in a bid to be ready to capitalise on the melting Arctic. Russian military modernisation in the Arctic has prompted other Arctic states to join the band wagon. Unlike Antarctica, the Arctic is not a global common accentuating the problem.
• For instance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has been conducting regular exercises in the region while partner countries are investing in upgrading military capabilities. At the same time, China, which calls itself to be a near-Arctic state, has also announced ambitious plans for a ‘polar silk route’ to connect to Europe as well building massive icebreakers.

Where does India stand with respect to the Arctic?

• Since 2007, India has an Arctic research programme with as many as 13 expeditions undertaken till date. In March 2022, India unveiled its first Arctic policy titled: ‘India and the Arctic: building a partnership for sustainable development’. India is also one of the 13 Observers in the Arctic Council, the leading intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation in the Arctic.
• As the earth further heats up, which is more profound at the poles, the race for the Arctic is set to accelerate which makes the Arctic the next geopolitical hotspot with all interests converging on it – environmental, economic, political and military.

VALUE ADDITION:

ARCTIC COUNCIL:

• It is an intergovernmental forum for discussing and resolving issues related to the Arctic region. The issues may include scientific research and the peaceful and sustainable use of resources in the region.
• It works on the overall objective of conserving the pristine environment, biodiversity and the interests and well-being of the local populations.
• It is not a treaty-based international legal entity like the UN organisations or trade or regional groupings such as NATO or ASEAN.
• It was set up by the 8 Arctic countries by means of the Ottawa Declaration of 1996. These countries are the US, Canada, Russia, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.
• In addition to these countries, 6 organisations representing the indigenous people of the Arctic region have also been given the status of permanent participants.

2. INDIA-AUSTRALIA TRADE PACT

THE CONTEXT: The Australian Parliament recently approved the free trade agreement with India. In India, such agreements require approval from the Union Cabinet.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is AI-ECTA?

• The Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (AI-ECTA) was signed by the two countries on April 2, 2022.
• This free trade agreement eases trade between India and Australia by reducing customs duties, regulatory laws, subsidies and quotas on products under import-export.
• The pact ensures that the cost of production is cheaper when compared with other countries.

Why is AI-ECTA significant?

• AI-ECTA is the first free trade agreement that India signed with a large developed economy in the last decade.
• Besides AI-ECTA and an FTA with Japan, all of India’s FTAs are with other developing countries like Singapore, South Korea, ASEAN, Malaysia and UAE.
• Once it becomes operationalized, AI-ECTA will provide India a duty-free access to Australian market for over 6,000 broad sectors. These include textile, leather, furniture, jewellery, machinery and others.
• It will help Australia reduce its dependence on Chinese market and forge new bilateral trade ties.
• Under this free trade agreement, Australia will provide zero-duty access to India for some 96.4 per cent (by value) of its exports. This includes products that currently incur 4 to 5 per cent customs duty in Australia.
• Numerous labour-intensive sectors in India are expected to benefit from this trade pact. These include textile and apparel, agricultural and fish products, leather, footwear, furniture, sports goods etc.
• India exported to Australia goods worth 8.3 million USD in 2021-22. India’s imports from Australia was at 16.75 billion USD during this period. The FTA will increase the bilateral trade value from the present 27.5 billion USD to 45-50 billion USD in the next five years.
• It will enhance people-to-people relations and foster cultural ties between the two countries.
• It will increase access to a range of skilled service providers, investors and business visitors, boosting investments and business opportunities significantly.

VALUE ADDITION:

PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

IFC-IOR: The Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region in Gurugram is an Indian initiative to boost maritime security and response through the exchange of information related to the ships in the Indian Ocean Region.

Strategic Dialogue In June 2020, Australia and India decided to upgrade their Secretaries 2+2 dialogue (Defence and Foreign Affairs) to the Ministerial level.

Exercise Malabar: Australia participated in the MALABAR naval exercise in October 2020, joining India, the United States, and Japan.

AUSINDEX: Engagement between the Royal Australian Navy and the Indian Navy has advanced significantly through the key bilateral exercise, AUSINDEX.

Pitch Black: For the first time, the Indian Air Force participated in Exercise Pitch Black in Darwin in 2018.

ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

3. LEITH’S SOFTSHELL TURTLE

THE CONTEXT: India’s proposal to increase the protection of Leith’s softshell turtle was approved at the 19th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP 19) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is being held in Panama City from November 14 to 25.

THE EXPLANATION:

About Leith’s Softshell Turtle

• Leith’s softshell turtle is a large freshwater soft-shelled turtle that is endemic to peninsular India.
• It has been subject to intense exploitation over the past 30 years for poaching and illegal consumption within India. It has been illegally traded to foreign countries for meat and its calipee.
• This species’ population has fallen by 90 per cent over the past 3 decades and is now very difficult to find.
• It is classified as “critically endangered” in the IUCN Red List.
• The turtle has been listed on Schedule IV of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, which gives protection from hunting and trading. However, this protection failed to save the species from poaching and illegal trade. Seizures of thousands of specimens are reported every year.
• The recent shift from CITES Appendix II to Appendix I will help prevent commercial trade of this critically endangered species. It will ensure that the international trade of captive-bred specimens only takes place in registered facilities and that higher and more appropriate penalties are given for illegal trade.

What are the other key outcomes of COP19 of CITES?

• At the conference, 52 proposals have been put forward to increase regulation of the international trade of sharks, reptiles, hippos, songbirds, rhinos, 200 tree species, orchids, elephants, turtles etc.
• India also proposed induction of freshwater turtle Batagur kachuga, which gained widespread support from the parties in COP19 of CITES.
• During the event, CITES lauded and recorded India’s efforts focusing on the conservation of tortoises and freshwater turtles as well as the efforts towards combating wildlife crime and the illegal trade of turtles. It specifically recognized the positive outcomes of Operation Turtshield, which resulted in the capturing of numerous criminals involved in the poaching and illegal trade of freshwater turtles and the large number of seizures made in different parts of the country.

SECURITY AFFAIRS

4. KUKI-CHIN BANGLADESHI REFUGEE ISSUE

THE CONTEXT: The on-going conflict between Bangladeshi security forces and the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA) triggered an influx of refugees from the Kuki-Chin community to the Indian state of Mizoram.

THE EXPLANATION:

Who is Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA)?

• The Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA) is the armed wing of the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) – a separatist group that was established in 2008 to create a separate state in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Southern Bangladesh.
• The KNF claims that all members of the Bawm, Pungkhua, Lushai, Khumi, Mro, and Khyang ethnic groups are part of the greater Kuki-Chin race.
• Also known as the Bawm Party, this group is having close relationships with rebel groups in Northeast India and Myanmar.

About the current conflict in Bangladesh

• The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has launched an operation in October 2022 against the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA) after it entered into an agreement with the newly formed militant outfit called the Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hind al Sharqiya, which originated from the remote hilly terrains of Rangamati and Bandarban. Under this three-year agreement, KNF will provide shelter, training and other support to the militants in return for 3 lakh Bangladeshi Taka and food expenditure. While several of them have been arrested, 50 militants are currently being trained in the region.

Refugee Situation in Mizoram

• This on-going military operation in the CHT has triggered the inflow of refugees in Mizoram. At least 200 Kuki-Chin refugees from Chittagong reached Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district.
• The state cabinet had recently approved the setting up of temporary shelters and other basic amenities the Bangladeshi Kuki-Chin refugees. Some 35 lakh people of Kuki-Chin-Mizo communities live in Chittagong Hills Tracts. More refugees from this region are expected to reach Mizoram.
• They will be recognized as “officially displaced persons” in the state government records since there are no laws related to refugees in India. These refugees will be housed on the same lines as the shelters given to the refugees from Myanmar, who entered Mizoram after the 2021 coup. Mizoram, which shares a 318-km-long border with Bangladesh, currently hosts some 30,000 refugees from Myanmar.

GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND INITIATIVE IN NEWS

5. FOOD SAFETY AND STANDARDS (GM FOODS) (DRAFT) REGULATIONS

THE CONTEXT: The FSSAI recently released a new draft of Genetically Modified (GM) Food regulations for public consultation. This comes at a time when the issue concerning the genetically modified (GM) mustard is under the spotlight.

THE EXPLANATION:

About the new draft regulations:

• The new draft is different from the old version that was released by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in November 2021. The recently-released draft aims to simplify the procedure of prior approvals for food that are derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It also expands the scope of regulations by including food ingredients produced from GMOs that do not have any modified DNA.

What does the draft regulations propose?

• The draft regulations propose front-of-the-pack labelling of packaged food products that contain 1 per cent or more of GM ingredients.
• It is applicable for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) used in food items having 1 per cent or more of GM ingredients produced from modified DNA and GMO-derived ingredients, additives or processing aids.
• No one will be allowed to manufacture, pack, store, sell, market, distribute or import any food items produced from GMOs, except those that have received prior approval from the FSSAI.
• Manufacturers and importers of genetically modified food products and ingredients are required to receive approval from the food regulator.
• If the GMOs are used as food or source material for the production of food, clearance is required from the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) – the central government authority responsible for monitoring the environmental risks posed by the GMOs.
• If the genetically modified organism is used as seeds or for cultivation, the applicant is required to submit an application to the GEAC to comply with the Environment Ministry’s 1989 rules.
• Food products having individual 1 per cent or more GM ingredients must be labeled as “contains genetically modified organisms”. This label must be at front of the pack of pre-packaged products. This rule is also applicable to the presence of adventitious or technically unavoidable presence of GM ingredients.

MISCELLANEOUS

6. INDIA WINS THE INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION (IEC) VICE PRESIDENCY CHAIR

THE CONTEXT: India wins the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Vice Presidency and Strategic Management Board (SMB) Chair for the 2023-25 term.

THE EXPLANATION:

• By securing over 90% of the votes cast by full members of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) during its General Meeting held recently in San Francisco, USA, India’s representative, a member of the Indian National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and various technical committees of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS-India), was elected.
• Representation of BIS (India) in policy and governance bodies of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and IEC ensures that Indian viewpoints on the important strategic and policy matters are put forth and it also provides opportunities to align the national standardization priorities with International best practices.
• Currently, BIS (India) is represented in various policy and governance bodies of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and IEC such as ISO Council, ISO Technical Management Board (TMB), IEC SMB, IEC Market Strategy Board (MSB), IEC Business Advisory Committee (BAC), etc.

International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC):

• Founded in 1906, the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is a global, not-for-profit membership organization that brings together more than 170 countries and coordinates the work of 20 000 experts globally. It is the world’s leading organization for the preparation and publication of international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies, collectively known as “electrotechnology”.
• The mission of the IEC is to achieve worldwide use of IEC International Standards and Conformity Assessment systems to ensure the safety, efficiency, reliability and interoperability of electrical, electronic and information technologies, to enhance international trade, facilitate broad electricity access and enable a more sustainable world.

Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTION

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q1. Consider the following statements:

1. India has Observer status in the Arctic Council.
2. ‘Maitri’ is India’s permanent Research Centre in Arctic region.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only

b) 2 only

c) Both 1 and 2

d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: A

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental body set up in 1996 by the Ottawa declaration to promote cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States together with the indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants. Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the United States of America are members of the Arctic Council. India recieved Observer status in the Arctic Council in 2013.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: ‘Himadri’ is India’s first permanent research centre in Arctic region.

GEOGRAPHY: CLIMATOLOGY

1. ARE EL NIÑO-LA NIÑA WEATHER PATTERNS CHANGING?

THE CONTEXT: Recently, a new study projects that climate change will significantly impact El Niño-La Niña weather patterns approximately by 2030 — a decade before what was earlier predicted. This is bound to result in further global climate disruptions.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is the El Niño phenomenon?

• El Niño is the warming of sea water in the central-east Equatorial Pacific that occurs every few years. During El Niño, surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific rise, and trade winds — east-west winds that blow near the Equator — weaken.
• Normally, easterly trade winds blow from the Americas towards Asia. Due to El Niño, they falter and change direction to turn into westerlies, bringing warm water from the western Pacific towards the Americas. The phenomena of upwelling, where nutrient-rich waters rise towards the surface, is reduced under El Niño. This in turn reduces phytoplankton.
• Thus, fish that eat phytoplankton are affected, followed by other organisms higher up the food chain. Warm waters also carry tropical species towards colder areas, disrupting multiple ecosystems. Since the Pacific covers almost one-third of the earth, changes in its temperature and subsequent alteration of wind patterns disrupt global weather patterns.
• El Niño causes dry, warm winter in Northern U.S. and Canada and increases the risk of flooding in the U.S. gulf coast and southeastern U.S. It also brings drought to Indonesia and Australia.

What is La Niña?

• La Niña is the opposite of El Niño. La Niña sees cooler than average sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial Pacific region. Trade winds are stronger than usual, pushing warmer water towards Asia.
• On the American west coast, upwelling increases, bringing nutrient-rich water to the surface. Pacific cold waters close to the Americas push jet streams — narrow bands of strong winds in the upper atmosphere — northwards. This leads to drier conditions in Southern U.S., and heavy rainfall in Canada.
• La Niña has also been associated with heavy floods in Australia. Two successive La Niña events in the last two years caused intense flooding in Australia, resulting in significant damage.

What were the study’s findings?

• The combination of El Niño, La Niña, and the neutral state between the two opposite effects is called the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Southern oscillations are large-scale changes in sea level pressure in the tropical Pacific region.
• ENSO’s scale is significant enough to influence global climate. According to the study, published in the Nature Communications journal, increased SST variability from ENSO in the eastern Equatorial Pacific (EP) will emerge around 2030 ( error margin of +/- 6 years), more than a decade earlier than that of the central Pacific (CP) ENSO.
• If CP and EP are not separated, SST variability from ENSO will occur almost four decades earlier than previously suggested. Changes in the equatorial Pacific will be visible first due to a stronger increase in the EP-ENSO rainfall response, leading to increased SST variability.

What is the effect on India’s monsoons?

• In India, El Niño causes weak rainfall and more heat, while La Niña intensifies rainfall across South Asia, particularly in India’s northwest and Bangladesh during the monsoon. At present, India, like the rest of the globe, is witnessing an extended ‘triple dip’ La Niña. As reported by The Hindu, this, in part, is why India saw surplus rain in September, a month that usually sees the monsoon retreat, for the third year in a row.

INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

2. THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ACT, 1960

THE CONTEXT: The Centre has proposed to overhaul The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, introducing 61 amendments in the law, which includes three years’ imprisonment for committing “gruesome cruelty” including “bestiality” with animals.

THE EXPLANATION:

A draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Bill, 2022, prepared by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, has been opened for public comments. Once the draft is final, the Bill could be brought either in the Winter Session or the Budget Session of Parliament.

What are the main changes proposed in the law?

• Essentially, the law is proposed to be made tighter, with more stringent punishments. Several offences have been made cognizable, which means offenders can be arrested without an arrest warrant. The draft Bill has proposed to include “Bestiality” as a crime under the new category of “Gruesome cruelty.”
• he proposed subsection describes “gruesome cruelty” as any act involving animals which leads to “extreme pain and suffering” and is “likely to leave the animal in life-long disability”. It includes “mutilation or killing of animal by the use of strychnine injection in the heart or any other cruel manner that is known to cause permanent physical damage to the animal or render animal useless or cause any injury which is likely to cause death including bestiality…”.
• The draft proposes fines from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 “or the cost of the animal…whichever is more or with the imprisonment of one year which may extend up to three years or with both” for the offence of gruesome cruelty. For killing an animal, the draft Bill proposes a maximum punishment of five years in jail.

About Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960

• The legislative intent of the Act is to “prevent the infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering on animals”.
• The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) was established in 1962 under Section 4 of the Act.
• This Act provides for punishment for causing unnecessary cruelty and suffering to animals. The Act defines animals and different forms of animals.
• Discusses different forms of cruelty, exceptions, and killing of a suffering animal in case any cruelty has been committed against it, so as to relieve it from further suffering.
• Provides the guidelines relating to experimentation on animals for scientific purposes.
• The Act enshrines the provisions relating to the exhibition of the performing animals, and offences committed against the performing animals.
• This Act provides for the limitation period of 3 months beyond which no prosecution shall lie for any offences under this Act.

SOCIAL ISSUES AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

3. NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION STRATEGY

THE CONTEXT: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare unveiled the National Suicide Prevention Strategy — the first-of-its-kind policy formulated by the government to prevent suicides as a public health priority.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is India’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy?

• According to the ministry, the policy that will set the stage for promotion of mental health and prevention of suicides in the coming decade.
• The goal of the strategy is to reduce suicide mortality in the country by 10 per cent by 2023. The strategy provides a framework for multiple stakeholders to implement activities for prevention of suicides in the country.

National Suicide Prevention Strategy: Objectives

• First, it seeks to establish effective surveillance mechanisms for suicide within the next three years.
• Second, it seeks to establish psychiatric outpatient departments that will provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all districts within the next five years.
• Third, it aims to integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational institutions within the next eight years.
• The fourth objective of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy is to strengthen surveillance of suicide and further generation of evidence through evaluation, that will ensure improvement in the programme quality.

Implementation mechanism

• Reinforcing leadership, partnerships and institutional capacity in the country.
• Enhancing the capacity of health services to provide suicide prevention services.
• Developing community resilience and societal support for suicide prevention and reduce stigma associated with suicidal behaviours.

Suicides in India: What’s the current scenario?

• According to the annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), released in August, 1.64 lakh people died by suicide in 2021 — an increase of 7.2 per cent from 2020. This is 10 per cent higher than the COVID deaths (1.48 lakh) in India in 2020, and 6.8 times the maternal deaths (23,800) in the same year.
• The NCRB report also stated that more than 1,00,000 people die by suicide in the country every year. A total of 25,891 suicides were reported in the 53 megacities of the country during 2021, with the highest in Delhi.
• In the past three years, the suicide rate in the country has increased from 10.2 to 11.3 per 1,00,000 population. Most suicides in India are by youth and middle-aged adults — with 65 per cent of the suicides in 2020 being reported in the age group of 18-45 years.

Ongoing suicide prevention initiatives in India

• The National Mental Health Policy (2014) sees prevention of mental disorders, reduction of suicide and attempted suicide as core priority areas.
• The Mental Healthcare Act 2017 brought in some necessary changes. The Act that came into force from May 2018 effectively decriminalised attempted suicide, which was punishable under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code.
• It ensured that the individuals who have attempted suicide are offered opportunities for rehabilitation from the government as opposed to being tried or punished.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

4. SEBI’S PLANS TO TACKLE MARKET RUMOURS

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) floated a consultation paper proposing measures to effectively tackle market rumours. It reviewed disclosure requirements for material events and information under the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.

THE EXPLANATION:

What was the need for review?

• The central premise of the proposal is to ensure timely disclosure of significant events that may have a bearing on the price of a scrip. SEBI notes that while regulatory actions against non-disclosure of events do act as a deterrent for listed entities to withhold details of material events or information, timely disclosure is still very important.
• SEBI also seeks to ensure that unverified rumours do not shake investor confidence and affect decision-making. Listed entities too have sought that the regulator institute a certain uniformity in its guidance for disclosures, to help them better determine what constitutes a material event or information.
• In a related context, the market regulator pointed to provisions that require companies to put forth specific and adequate replies to all rumour verification queries raised by the exchanges. This could be with respect to certain ‘information’ circulating on social media or any other platform. It proposes that entities should confirm or deny any such reported event or information.

What disclosures are being proposed?

• The proposed measures are directed towards preventing any false market sentiment or impact on the securities of a company. Recognising the “growing influence” of print, television and digital news media, it argues that companies need to keep pace and ensure that any rumours are verified or refuted.
• It proposes companies disclose all information whose expected impact in terms of value exceeds 2% of either its turnover or net-worth as per the last audited financial statement, or 5% of the three-year average of absolute value of profit/loss after tax.
• In order to avoid information asymmetry, SEBI has proposed that the listed entities need to also disseminate any communication with regards to the company made by its directors, promoters, key managerial personnel or senior management individually and not through the company. It recognises that it is difficult for an investor to keep track of multiple newsworthy announcements from diverse avenues.
• To this effect, it proposes that companies inform about any ratings actions, even if it was not requested for by the company or if a request was withdrawn. Further, companies also need to disclose any actions initiated by a regulatory, statutory, enforcement or judicial authority against any of its directors, key managerial personnel, senior management, promoter or subsidiary in relation to the entity.
• These may include investigation, suspension, imposition of penalty or fine, settlement of proceedings, debarment, sanctions, warnings, search, seizure, and default on the payment of fines, penalties and dues among others. The mentioned measure would thus, prevent information asymmetry as it would streamline access to verified information.
• Other than this, the proposals also recognise the material importance of key personnel, senior management and directors to investors. They instil confidence in the functioning and affairs of the company.
• To this effect, it proposes that entities inform the exchange about their resignation(s) within seven days. Along similar lines, companies must also disclose if the MD/CEO is not available to discharge their duties for greater than a month.

Are timelines being revised?

• The regulator observed that there was a need for quicker disclosure of material events since ‘information’ permeates very fast on social media and digital media. It makes a note of several instances where the disclosures were made only after the news had already circulated in the media.
• At times, the information was disclosed only after the exchange raised a query to the company. Therefore, SEBI proposes that disclosures pertaining to events or information emanating from within the company be made within twelve hours instead of the existing mandate of twenty-four hours.

SECURITY AFFAIRS

5. WHAT IS THE ASSAM-MEGHALAYA BORDER DISPUTE

THE CONTEXT: The recent killing of six people in Assam police firing comes ahead of the second phase of talks between the two states to resolve their boundary dispute, and there are concerns its shadow will loom large over the negotiations.

THE EXPLANATION:

The incident comes ahead of the second phase of talks scheduled for this month-end (November 2022) between the two states to resolve their boundary dispute, and there are concerns its shadow will loom large over the negotiations.

What is the border dispute?

• Assam and Meghalaya have a longstanding dispute in 12 stretches of their 884-km shared border. The two states had signed a pact in March resolving the dispute in six out of 12 areas. In August, they decided to form regional committees. The second round of discussions for the remaining six phases was to commence by the end of this month..
• The Assam-Meghalaya pact was seen as a major achievement, as Assam’s border disputes with other states in the Northeast have remained unresolved despite multiple rounds of talks. Now, the firing threatens to derail the upcoming talks.

CONNECT THE DOT: In March 2022,the Assam and Meghalaya state Government signed an agreement to resolve their five-decade-old border dispute in six of the 12 locations.

History Behind Border Demarcation

• During the British rule, Assam consisted of the present-day Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya, besides Mizoram, which later became separate states.
• However, the long-standing dispute between Assam and Meghalaya began in 1972 when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam under the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971, a law that it challenged.

Major Point of Contention

• Since 1993, twelve (12) areas of differences have evolved between the two states. The said areas are: Upper Tarabari, Gazang reserve forest, Hahim, Langpih, Borduar, Boklapara, Nongwah, Matamur, Khanapara-Pilangkata, Deshdemoreah Block I and Block II, Khanduli and Retacherra.
• In August 2021, the governments of Assam and Meghalaya had formed a committee to resolve the border rows in a phased manner in six (6) of the 12 disputed sites (Hahim, Gizang, Tarabari, Boklapara, Khanapara-Pilingkata, Ratacherra).
• The proposed recommendations for the 36.79 square km of land said that Assam would keep 18.51 square km, while Meghalaya would get the remaining 18.28 square km.

What is the Next Step?

• The Survey of India (SoI) will delineate and demarcate the boundary in the presence of representatives of both governments. It will then go to Parliament for approval and will likely take a few months.

THE PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

6. NYINGMA SECT OF BUDDHISM

THE CONTEXT: In a significant development in the Tibetan Buddhist circles, the Nyingma sect has identified a boy from Spiti in Himachal Pradesh as the reincarnation of the late Taklung Setrung Rinpoche, a scholar known for his knowledge of Tibetan Tantric school.

THE EXPLANATION:

“The Nyingma sect is the oldest of all Buddhist sects, and Taklung Setrung Rinpoche was a profound scholar renowned for his expertise in Tibetan Tantric school.

• The Nyingma or “ancient” tradition is the oldest of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Often referred to as “the ancient translation school”, it was founded in the eighth century following the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit to Tibetan.
• Around 760, the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen invited two Buddhist masters from the Indian subcontinent, Padmasambhava and Shantarakshita, to the “Land of Snows” to bring Buddhism to the Tibetan people. Thus began a massive translation project of all Buddhist texts into the newly created Tibetan language.
• The legendary Vajrayana master Padmasambhava, who Tibetans call Guru Rinpoche, is considered the founder of Tibetan Buddhism. He supervised the translation of the tantras (the esoteric teachings of the Buddha) while Shantarakshita, abbot of the great Buddhist Nalanda University, supervised the translation of the sutras (oral teachings of the Buddha).
• Together they founded the first monastery in Tibet, Samye, which became the main center for Buddhist teaching in Tibet for around three centuries.
• The Nyingma tradition classifies the Buddhist teachings into nine yanas or vehicles. The first three vehicles are common to all schools of Buddhism, the next three are common to all schools of Tantric Buddhism, and the last three are exclusive to the Nyingma tradition. The highest is known as Dzogchen or the Great Perfection.
• Unlike the other schools, the Nyingma traditionally had no centralized authority or a single head of the lineage. However, since the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the Nyingma school has had representatives.

What are the 4 sects of Tibetan Buddhism?

The four schools of Tibetan Buddhism are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug or Gelugpa.

1. Nyingma (founded in 8th century)
2. Kagyu (founded in the early 11th century)
3. Sakya (founded in 1073)
4. Gelug (founded in 1409)

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTION

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q1. Consider the following statements about Global Hunger Index:

1. It is calculated on the basis of four parameters with each having equal weightage.
2. India ranked 107 out of 121 countries in Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only

b) 2 only

c) Both 1 and 2

d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: B

Explanation:

• It is annually released by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
• India has slipped 6 places and ranked 107, out of 121 countries, in Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022.
• Four parameters:

1. Undernourishment: The share of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient. This makes up 1/3 of the GHI score.
2. Child Stunting: The share of children under the age of 5 who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition. This makes up 1/6 of the GHI score.
3. Child Wasting: The share of children under the age of 5 who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition. This makes up 1/6 of the GHI score.
4. Child Mortality: The share of children who die before their 5th birthday, reflecting in part the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments. This makes up 1/3 of the GHI score.

THE CONTEXT: The new currency driving governance today is data. Whether it is the debate on the hunger index or the arguments regarding the caste census, data is at the centre of these controversies: how it is coll­ected, interpreted, and constructed into an index is being vociferously debated by everyone, including those who have only a rudimentary understanding of data. The pandemic management that relies heavily on numbers in terms of testing, vaccinating or tracking recoveries and deaths has only heightened this fascination with data.

EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY

• The reason for this obsession with data is because evidence-based policy (EBP) making or data-based governance has been touted as a rational form of governance that bases its decisions not on populist pressures but on objective data.
• This requires evidence-based data at all stages of policymaking. EBP is viewed as especially important for deve­loping countries where public resources are often scarce or limited. It requires both data and the process of data collection to be scientific, rigorous and validated both in the process of the collection as well as analysis. However, the entire process of data collection and its interpretation often tends to be imbued with political economy issues in deve­loping countries.

DATA TO DATA POLITICS

• Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have had a defining impact on how data is currently viewed as “it rec­onfigures relationships between states, subjects, and citizens”.
• Today, big data, machine learning and algorithms are the frameworks within which citizens operate—oblivious to the manner in which this digital interface is converting them into data to be used by unknown entities.
• In this age of data politics, new players like transnational corporations that control ICT’s and social media domains are becoming more important forces than the state.
• This is alarming as, unlike the checks and bala­nces that limit the state’s influence, these large, transnational corporations are not constrained or held accountable by any such mechanisms. This merits a deeper inquiry.

DATA-BASED GOVERNANCE

• Amassing large, granular data about the citizens by the state through census, periodic surveys, etc. Now through digital convergence has continued unabated and gained further traction in the context of EBP.
• Data-based governance aims to facilitate the use of research and evidence to inform programmatic funding decisions.
• The goal is to further ­invest in what works to improve outcomes for citizens based on prior evidence. In general, data-based governance assumes the existence of a system of reliable, rigorous and validated data with associated infrastructure.
• However, in reality, the governance process is often messy and riddled with political compulsions as governance involves both formal and informal dom­ains, rules and actors.
• This makes governance outcomes even more challenging to measure.
• This is especially because governance outcomes combine tangible outputs and intangible processes.
• Measuring only tangible outputs without capturing the intangible processes is likely to provide misleading inferences. For example, if one is trying to assess women’s participation in a gram sabha, the number of women participants (outcome) needs to be captured and the nature of participation (process) should be documented.
• Often, quantitative data collections focus only on quantifiable measures, thus omitting qualitative processes that give mea­ning to those numbers.

WHY DATA CENTRIC GOVERNANCE (EVIDENCE BASED POLICY MAKING) IS IMPERATIVE FOR DEVELOPING NATIONS

Evidence from randomised evaluations can yield insights and conclusions into questions at the heart of controversial policy debates. Since the past decade or so, evidence-based policy-making has gained traction, with some governments and NGOs having institutionalised processes for rigorously evaluating innovations and incorporating evidence into decision-making.

CASE STUDY:

• The seminal and pioneering work of Noble Prize winner of Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer in development economics using randomised evaluations to test the effectiveness of social programmes and policies with the objective of reducing poverty marks a definite shift in discerning development from an entirely theoretical perspective.
• The path-breaking approach that they follow is popularly known as randomised control trial (RCT), which is used to test the effect of small interventions on individual behaviour. The lab has transformed the field of development economics from being mainly theoretical to empirical with high-quality evidence that has influenced piloting, testing, and scaling of effective policies around the globe. For example, with support from Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the Ministry of Education in Peru formed a dedicated unit to identify, test and scale low-cost interventions to improve educational outcomes.
• J-PAL is promoting the scale-up and replication of effective programmes. Randomised evaluations allow researchers to learn not only about the impact of a particular programme but also to draw out the mechanisms behind its success to help derive general lessons that can be applied in the same context.

IMPACT OF THE STUDY:

• From randomised evaluations in India, Ghana and Kenya, researchers learnt why children are behind in school and thereby built a range of cost-effective strategies based on the insight of regrouping students by their current learning level rather than by their age group.
• On the other hand, the Government of Zambia has been able to apply the general idea of “Teaching at the Right Level” (TaRL, an approach developed by Indian NGO Pratham) to inform the design of its own remedial programs. This has significantly improved the learning opportunities in both India and Africa.

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

Cases that highlight the value of EBP in developing nations: one where evidence-based policies transformed lives and the other where the lack of an evidence-based response has caused widespread death.

• First, the Government of Tanzania has implemented various health service reforms informed by the results of household disease surveys. This EBP contributed to over 40% reductions in infant mortality in two pilot districts.
• Second, the AIDS/HIV crisis has aggravated in some countries because respective governments have ignored the evidence of what causes the disease and how to prevent it from spreading further.

EXAMPLES OF EVIDENCE POLICY MAKING IN INDIA

• CENSUS BY MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
• SWACHH SARVEKSHAN BY MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS
• NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY BY MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE.
• MULTI-DYNAMIC POVERTY INDEX BY NITI AAYOG
• SDG RANKING OF STATES BY NITI AAYOG
• ASER REPORT BY PRATHAM NGO

CHALLENGES OF POLICY MAKING

• States routinely gather vast quantities of administrative data. However, large proportions of these data remain unutilised or are unusable as ­often these administrative data are not validated or updated.
• At times, the same data is collected by different agencies with different identifiers making integration or consolidation of data difficult. To avert duplication of data, which is costly both in terms of human as well as financial resources, it is essential to standardise data collection across departments.
• Data starts to become scarce and variable at lower tiers of governance, for instance, the devolution of funds at the sub-block level is often opaque and self-reported without external validation. This makes matching of funds, particularly untied grants with specific functions at the sub-block level challenging as funds are often fungible.
• Administrative data is generally inaccessible to the public and researchers for scrutiny or analysis. Citing the example of Denmark, where opening up of administrative data on tax collection gave significant insights that led to key tax reforms, advocate encouraging and incentivising governments to share the administrative data, especially in the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Measuring governance is a challenging proposition. This is particularly true in the domain of law and order, which is an essential aspect of governance. Two studies aiming to measure governance across states in India by developing a composite governance index lay bare the challenges of choosing appropriate indicators and their measurement and interpretations.

WHY DATA-CENTRIC GOVERNANCE IS THE RIGHT STEP TO CHOOSE AND HOW INDIA CAN ACHIEVE IT?

• India is mired in a data-driven world. Governance is increasingly being pushed to become data-centric.
• Data-centric governance or policymaking is a step in the right direction. However, the paradox of data-centric governance in India right now is that it is caught between two countervailing forces—a rel­entless churning of digital and other forms of data that are often unreliable and/or prone to errors on the one hand and a steady erosion of credible, scientific sources of data on the other.
• If governance decisions are to be data-centric, there is a need to ensure a good, robust and reliable database system. With several national statistical bases, such as the National Sample Surveys, that provide an interim glimpse into the trajectory of the economy in between the decadal census counts, getting eroded either through delays or data suppression, the danger of a “statistical vacuum” has been raised by some scholars (like Drèze) and others who have advocated a decentralised system of data collection process where states take the lead in building their own bottom-up databases.
• This requires individual states to invest heavily in both human and technical infrastructure with built-in quality control measures to ensure those policy decisions are based on robust and rigorous data.
• Finally, it is equally essential to ack­nowledge that policymaking is a contested space that is interactive, discursive and, therefore, a negotiated process.
• In the global South, the rigorous, constant implementation of data-based governance or policymaking is likely to be challenging. The government often discretionary policy decisions need to be taken by the government by prioritising one group over the other to redress historical inequalities.
• Thus, data-based governance req­uires not just validated and scientific data but also requires the policymakers to use it wisely by contextualising it to ensure equality and equity.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• Data-driven governance is being touted globally as a new approach to governance, one where data is used to drive policy decisions, set goals, measure performance, and increase government transparency.
• Evidence-based policymaking (EBP) assists in making decisions about projects, programmes and policies by placing the best available evidence from research conducted at the heart of policy development and implementation. It also makes explicit what is known through scientific evidence.
• In contrast to opinion-based policymaking, evidence-based policymaking needs an evidence base at all stages in the policy cycle to define issues, shape agendas, make action choices, identify options, deliver them, and monitor their impact and outcomes. Basically, it is a set of methods that informs the policy process, rather than aiming to directly affect the eventual objectives of the policy directly. Thereby, EBP advocates a more systematic, rational and rigorous approach to produce better outcomes.
• The pre-requisite for evidence-based policy is that the data must be trustworthy, and it depends upon the quality of the data and the quality of the professional statisticians.
• Credible statistics is important for good governance and decision-making in all sectors of society. Therefore, policy-makers are more likely to use evidence in decision-making if that evidence is unbiased, rigorous, substantive, relevant, timely, actionable, easy to understand, cumulative and easy to explain to constituents. EBP approaches can dramatically help reduce poverty and improve economic performance in developing nations.
• Impact evaluations of social programmes have emerged as an important tool to guide social policy in developing polities as they allow for accurate measurement and attribution of impact can help policy-makers identify programmes that work and those that do not work, so that effective and performing programmes can be promoted and ineffective ones can be discontinued.

THE CONCLUSION: The EBP has the potential for high impact change that India shouldn’t ignore. Thereby, systemic institutionalisation of EBP is the way forward in eradicating poverty and improving economic performance, education, health care, and social assistance for millions of people. But, if governance decisions are to be data-centric, there is a need to ensure a decentralised, robust, reliable database system. Data-based governance requires not just validated and scientific data but also requires the policymakers to use it wisely by contextualising it to ensure equality and equity.

INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. WHAT IS A POLYGRAPH TEST?

THE CONTEXT: Days after a Delhi court agreed to a narco test, the Delhi Police approached a court to conduct a polygraph test on Aaftab Poonawala, suspected of killing his partner Shraddha Walkar, to help investigators find the missing weapon and other evidence in the murder case.

THE EXPLANATION:

How Polygraph tests work?

• A polygraph test is based on the assumption that physiological responses (heartbeat, changes in breathing, sweating, etc.) triggered when a person is lying are different from what they would be otherwise.
• Instruments like cardio-cuffs or sensitive electrodes are attached to the person, and variables such as blood pressure, pulse, blood flow, etc., are measured as questions are put to them. A numerical value is assigned to each response to conclude whether the person is telling the truth, is deceiving, or is uncertain.
• A test such as this is said to have been first done in the 19th century by the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, who used a machine to measure changes in the blood pressure of criminal suspects during interrogation. Similar devices were subsequently created by the American psychologist William Marston in 1914, and by the California police officer John Larson in 1921.

Are such tests accurate?

• Neither polygraph tests nor narco tests have been proven scientifically to have a 100% success rate, and remain contentious in the medical field as well.
• However, recently, investigating agencies have sought to employ these tests in investigation, and they are sometimes seen as being a “softer alternative” to torture or ‘third degree’ to extract the truth from suspects.

So, are the results of these tests admissible as evidence?

• The results of the tests cannot be considered to be “confessions”. However, any information or material subsequently discovered with the help of such a voluntarily-taken test can be admitted as evidence, the Supreme Court said, in ‘Selvi&Ors vs State of Karnataka &Anr’ (2010).
• Thus, if an accused reveals the location of a murder weapon in the course of the test, and police later find the weapon at that location, the statement of the accused will not be evidence, but the weapon will be.
• The Bench took into consideration international norms on human rights, the right to a fair trial, and the right against self-incrimination under Article 20(3) of the Constitution, as it is feared that a false confession could be obtained at times when a case needs to be solved quickly.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

2. WHAT IS A LOAN WRITE-OFF

THE CONTEXT: According to RBI data obtained by the under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Banks wrote off more than Rs 10 lakh crore in loans over the last five years.

THE EXPLANATION:

According to the RBI reply, while public sector banks reported the lion’s share of write-offs at Rs 734,738 crore, private sector banks were not far behind in bringing down their non-performing assets (NPAs). Private banks accounted for 27.28 per cent of the total banking sector write-offs over the last five years.

What is a loan write-off?

Writing off a loan essentially means it will no longer be counted as an asset. By writing off loans, a bank can reduce the level of non-performing assets (NPAs) on its books. An additional benefit is that the amount so written off reduces the bank’s tax liability.

Why do banks resort to write-offs?

• The bank writes off a loan after the borrower has defaulted on the loan repayment and there is a very low chance of recovery. The lender then moves the defaulted loan, or NPA, out of the assets side and reports the amount as a loss.
• After the write-off, banks are supposed to continue their efforts to recover the loan using various options. They have to make provisioning as well. The tax liability will also come down as the written-off amount is reduced from the profit.
• However, the chances of recovery from written-off loans are very low — as the RTI reply shows — which raises questions about the assets or collateral against which the banks lent funds to these defaulters.

What is the amount written off by private banks?

• Private banks wrote off loans worth Rs 2,74,772 crore in the last five years in their effort to bring down NPAs and whitewash their balance sheets. This works out to 27.28 per cent of the total write-off of Rs 10,09,510 crore of the banking sector.
• Private banks wrote off Rs 53,000 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 58,293 crore in 2019-20 when the entire banking sector witnessed the maximum loan write-offs.

Who is at the forefront of write-offs?

• Among private banks, ICICI Bank’s reduction in NPAs due to write-offs was Rs 50,514 crore in the last five years. Axis Bank wrote off Rs 49,715 crore and HDFC Bank Rs 34,782 crore during the period, according to the RBI. The loans written off by the banks are the depositors’ money.

How much did PSU banks write off?

• Public sector banks reported the lion’s share of write-offs at Rs 734,738 crore accounting for 72.78 per cent of the exercise. Among individual public sector banks, reduction in NPAs due to write-offs in the case of State Bank of India Rs 204,486 crore in the last five years, Punjab National Bank Rs 67,214 crore and Bank of Baroda Rs 66,711 crore.

ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

3. TAMIL NADU GETS ITS FIRST BIODIVERSITY HERITAGE SITE

THE CONTEXT: The Tamil Nadu Government issued a notification declaring Arittapatti and Meenakshipuram villages in Madurai district the first biodiversity heritage site in the State.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the notification, the site comprising 139.63 hectares in Arittapatti village (Melur block) and 53.8 hectares in Meenakshipuram village (Madurai East taluk) will be known as the Arittapatti Biodiversity Heritage site.
• Arittapatti village, known for its ecological and historical significance, houses around 250 species of birds including three important raptors – birds of prey, namely the Laggar Falcon, the Shaheen Falcon and Bonelli’s Eagle.
• It is also home to wildlife such as the Indian Pangolin, Slender Loris and pythons.
• The area is surrounded by a chain of seven hillocks or inselbergs that serve as a watershed, charging “72 lakes, 200 natural springs and three check dams,” the notification said. The Anaikondan tank, built during the reign of Pandiyan kings in the 16th century is one among them.
• Several megalithic structures, rock-cut temples, Tamil Brahmi inscriptions and Jain beds add to the historical significance of the region.

Conserving biodiversity and preserving heritage

• To prevent the loss of biodiversity and to preserve the cultural and architectural heritage of bygone times, the State government, upon the recommendation of the Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Board has declared Arittapatti a biodiversity heritage site.

SECURITY AFFAIRS

4. INDO-PACIFIC REGIONAL DIALOGUE (IPRD) 2022

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the fourth edition of Indo Pacific Regional Dialogue will be held in Delhi. IPRD is an apex level international annual conference of Indian Navy.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The National Maritime Foundation is Navy’s knowledge partner and chief organizer of each edition of the event. The theme of IPRD-2022 is “Operationalising the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative”. It will have six professional sessions spread over the three-day period.
• As part of the event, globally renowned speakers and eminent panellists will explore how the areas of maritime cooperation could be optimally and inclusively operationalized.

About IPRD 2022

• The IPRD 2022 will be held in New Delhi based on the theme ‘Operationalising the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI)’. The concept of IPOI seeks to promote regional, inclusive cooperation based on seven inter-connected pillars – maritime security, maritime ecology, maritime transport, capacity building and resource sharing, and science, technology and academic cooperation.

VALUE ADDITION:

What is National Maritime Foundation (NMF)?

• The National Maritime Foundation (NMF) is India’s first maritime think-tank established in 2005 to conduct independent and policy-relevant research on all topics related to the maritime sector. Its main mandate is to create maritime awareness amongst India’s policymakers, academia, and civil society. It provides a common platform for advocacy, discourse, and debate between maritime-related national and international institutions, organizations, academic establishments, and experts.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

5. ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PARTNERSHIP PLATFORM

THE CONTEXT: An Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Multi-stakeholder Partnership Platform (MSPP) was set up on November 18 this year to mark the start of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW).

THE EXPLANATION:

What is Antimicrobial Resistance Multi-stakeholder Partnership Platform?

The Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Multi-stakeholder Partnership Platform (MSPP) was launched jointly by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health.

The purpose of this newly established platform is to:

• Promote multidimensional action to combat antimicrobial resistance at the international, regional and national levels through action groups and formation of action plans.
• Create global momentum and high-level advocacy to combat antimicrobial resistance.
• Push for a global commitment to use antimicrobials in a responsible and prudent manner to ensure their effective utilization.
• The platform was recommended by the Interagency Coordination Group (IACG) in its 2019 report. The IACG recommended coordination between different stakeholders representing human, animal, plant and environmental health as well as agriculture, food and feed production to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

What is antimicrobial resistance?

• Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health concern that was responsible for almost 5 million deaths across the world in 2019. This includes 1.27 million deaths associated with the bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
• The AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites evolve over time and do not respond to medicines. This makes infections difficult to treat, increasing the risk of the disease spreading, becoming more severe and deadly. It causes deaths, morbidity, increases the cost of treatment, prolongs hospitalization, and reduces productivity of animals. This causes a major challenge for global food security and efforts seeking to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
• Some of the major drivers of AMR are misuse or overuse of antibiotics in food animal production, and wastes from factories, households, hospitals and farms.

About World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW)

• WAAW is a global campaign that is observed each year from November 18 to 24 to raise global awareness about AMR and promote best practices to address it. The theme for 2022 WAAW is ‘Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance Together’.

THE PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

6. WHAT IS ‘FRIENDSHORING’?

THE CONTEXT: US treasury secretary who was in New Delhi recently, said the US will pursue the ‘friend-shoring’ approach with trusted allies like India.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is the term meant by?

The term, a cousin of “reshoring” and “onshoring” and a sibling to “nearshoring,” is shorthand for the practice of relocating supply chains to countries where the risk of disruption from political chaos is low.

• Friendshoring is a strategy where a country sources the raw materials, components and even manufactured goods from countries that share its values. The dependence on the countries considered a “threat” to the stability of the supply chains is slowly reduced.
• It is also called “allyshoring”.
• For the US, Russia has long presented itself as a reliable energy partner, but in the Ukraine war, it has weaponized the gas against the people of Europe.
• It’s an example of how malicious actors can use their market positions to try to gain geopolitical leverage or disrupt trade for their own gain.
• Friend-shoring or ally-shoring has become a means for the US to influence firms to move their sourcing and manufacturing sites to friendly shores—often back to the same shores in the case of the US.
• The purpose of Frienshoring is to insulate countries’ supply chains from less like-minded nations, such as China in case of the US.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTION

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q. Consider the following statements about Election Commission:
1. Indian Constitution provides for establishment of Election Commission as multi-member body.
2. CEC and ECs have equal powers and equal salary, allowances which are similar to a judge of a High Court.
3. Constitution has debarred CEC and ECs from any further appointment by government after their retirement.
Which of the statements given above is/are incorrect?
a) 1 only
b) 1 and 2 only
c) 2 and 3 only
d) All of them

Answer: D

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Indian Constitution provides for establishment of Election Commission with composition of Chief Election Commissioner and as many Election Commissioners as President may fix from time to time. It is not necessarily a multi-member body.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: CEC and ECs have equal powers and equal salary, allowances which are similar to a judge of a Supreme Court.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: Constitution has not debarred CEC and ECs from any further appointment by government after their retirement

1. What makes pleasure different from joy? READ MORE
2. Empathy and compassion READ MORE
3. Science vs religion-I READ MORE
4. Science vs religion-II READ MORE

1. At COP27, one hit and many misses READ MORE
2. COP27: 18 countries join group on cryosphere loss, see it as major contributor to sea-level rise READ MORE
3. Look beyond COP for climate action READ MORE

1. Strategy to save: On the National Suicide Prevention Strategy READ MORE
2. Can India Seize the Demographic Advantage? READ MORE  

1. Persisting issues: On the new data protection bill READ MORE
2. The dissenting judgment versus the razing of equality READ MORE
3. A solution to the problem of judicial pendency, posed by the law minister – don’t mechanically arrest a suspect READ MORE
4. The executive-judiciary tussle READ MORE
5. Fair deal for EWS, thanks to the SC READ MORE
6. Prosecution’s slapdash approach in graft cases READ MORE
7. Polls and consequences READ MORE
8. Aadhar Act to Data Protection Bill—Parliament isn’t playing a big role in lawmaking READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. In Arittapatti, Tamil Nadu gets its first biodiversity heritage site READ MORE
2. Six killed in firing; Meghalaya, Assam differ on details of clash READ MORE
3. India’s fiscal consolidation trend intact; to see strong revenues, debt stabilisation, says Moody’s READ MORE
4. Supreme Court calls out Centre over short tenures of Chief Election Commissioners READ MORE
5. Australian Parliament clears path for free trade agreement with India READ MORE
6. India’s unusual abstention in CITES vote on reopening ivory trade READ MORE
7. UN’s Highest Environmental Honour For Assam Conservationist Purnima Devi Barman READ MORE

Main Exam

GS Paper- 1

1. Strategy to save: On the National Suicide Prevention Strategy READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Persisting issues: On the new data protection bill READ MORE
2. The dissenting judgment versus the razing of equality READ MORE
3. A solution to the problem of judicial pendency, posed by the law minister – don’t mechanically arrest a suspect READ MORE
4. The executive-judiciary tussle READ MORE
5. Fair deal for EWS, thanks to the SC READ MORE
6. Prosecution’s slapdash approach in graft cases READ MORE
7. Polls and consequences READ MORE
8. Aadhar Act to Data Protection Bill—Parliament isn’t playing a big role in lawmaking READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Can India Seize the Demographic Advantage? READ MORE  

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. The ‘India pole’ in international politics READ MORE
2. India-US relationship is on a strong footing READ MORE
3. Geopolitical rift at G20 meet READ MORE
4. World against terror: Global effort a must to demolish terror networks READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Explained | RBI’s concerns on slow deposit growth READ MORE
2. Human capital. Why informal employment poses a major challenge for India READ MORE
3. Smooth flow: Inland waterways have benefits in terms of cost and the environment READ MORE
4. Soaring Bad Loans, Abysmal Recoveries Show Bankruptcy Code Is Itself Bankrupt READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. At COP27, one hit and many misses READ MORE
2. COP27: 18 countries join group on cryosphere loss, see it as major contributor to sea-level rise READ MORE
3. Look beyond COP for climate action READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. What makes pleasure different from joy? READ MORE
2. Empathy and compassion READ MORE
3. Science vs religion-I READ MORE
4. Science vs religion-II READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. How far do you agree with this view that anti-conversion laws are not coherent with fundamental rights and breach the right to privacy of individuals? Analyse your view with the help of relevant examples.
2. ‘If India is to seize the advantage of its burgeoning young workforce, it needs to strategically implement economic and industrial policies’. Comment.
3. The role of Parliament in drafting laws has been diminishing in recent times and India seen the rise of administrative state. Critically examine.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• The best social reform in the world is a job.
• If India is to seize the advantage of its burgeoning young workforce, it needs to strategically implement economic and industrial policies.
• The Anti-Conversion law should be coherent with the fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution and should not be based on vagaries.
• Only 13% recovery on loan defaults of Rs 10 lakh crore shows that all is not well with the operation of the bankruptcy reforms.
• There is no doubt the energies of India’s young women and men can be tapped to lift the entire country’s prospects. But this can be achieved only with strategic investments and interventions by the government, alongside well-directed social, employment and industrial policies.
• Parliament needs to take back its core responsibility of drafting legislation. It also needs to provide for adequate space for healthy debate on its proposed statutes.
• Government must form a committee comprising agency chiefs and prosecution to monitor high-profile cases.
• Institutional solutions on weighty issues like inter-institutional balancing and efficiency enhancement require a balanced, institutionalised approach.
• In the Supreme Court of India’s verdict on the case of the economically weaker section, it is the dissenting judgment that imparts strength to fight for the promise of equality forming the core of the Constitution.
• Notwithstanding the geopolitical difficulties that India faces today, India is a pivotal power in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, with an ability to help tackle security, climate and other challenges of global consequence.

ESSAY TOPIC

• The best social reform in the world is a job.

50-WORD TALK

• COP27 has ended with little to show in terms of progress, barring the creation of a loss and damage fund. The familiar attempts by rich, more polluting countries to obfuscate, distract and offload their responsibilities on developing countries spell trouble and tragedy for the planet. This is a cop-out.
• By seeking recall of Supreme Court orders setting free Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins, the central government has pushed back against a dangerous precedent. Ethnic and religious groups have long lobbied for lenient treatment of terrorists who kill in their name. India cannot afford to be soft on such claims.

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 372]

The Context: Amid widespread economic disruptions caused by Covid 19 pandemic, the discussions on Universal Basic Income (UBI) and its forms have gained momentum. Recently, NHRC had informed UNHRC that the idea of UBI is being actively considered by the Union government. UNDP, in a recent report, recommended immediate introduction of a Temporary Basic Income for the world’s poorest so that people could stay at home amidst rising number of cases.

What is UBI?

• According to Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), “A basic income (BI) is a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.” (A means test determines eligibility of a person or household to receive welfare benefits)
• Basic income (BI) is a fixed income an adult receives from government by the virtue of being citizen. It is “basic” because it is just enough to provide for basic consumption and income security. The idea is that a society should look out for its people’s survival.
• UBI has three components: universality, unconditionality, and agency(by providing support in the form of cash transfers to respect, not dictate, recipients’ choices).

What are different forms of UBI?

• Forms vary on the funding proposal, the level of payment, the frequency of payment, and the particular policies proposed around it.
• Each of the parameters (a universal, unconditional, individual, regular and cash payment) is fundamental.
• In Indian discussions, the term is frequently used but most discussions revolve around some sort of a Quasi UBI which is based on exclusion rather than inclusion criteria. (The rich are excluded rather than including the poor).
• A Guaranteed Basic Income is a guaranteed, non-universal income transfer to the poor which is enough to provide for their basic needs. Its only difference with UBI is ‘universality’.

Defining characteristics of UBI

• Periodic
• Cash payment
• Universal
• Individual
• Unconditional

DIFFERENT UBI PROPOSALS

Universal Basic Income (UBI)

An unconditional cash transfer to all residents in a country.

Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI)

A social assistance means-tested scheme similar to UBI but targeted to the poor.

Quasi Universal Basic Rural Income (QUBRI)

Proposed by Arvind Subramanian, to tackle the agrarian and rural distress in India. 75% of the rural population (farmers and non-farmers) can be covered by not targeting IN the deserving poor but excluding OUT the demonstrably non-poor.  It is advocated as a more effective policy than MSP and loan waivers.

Partial Basic Income (PBI)

Any income guarantee set at a level that is less than enough to meet a person’s basic needs.

Negative Income Tax (NIT)

Proposed by Milton Friedman. It is an income support payment for individuals with no income. The amount reduces with increasing income. Break-even point is fixed at a certain level of income and after that point taxes start.

IS THIS A NEW IDEA?

• The idea was first suggested by Sir Thomas More in 16th century and in 1970s, it was advocated by free-market economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman.
• ‘Industry 4.0’ may permanently reduce the demand for labour leading to job losses, stagnant incomes and worsening inequality.
• Previously, technological developments mostly affected less skilled workers which required greater investment in education and skilling.
• The fears are that new digital technology is also destroying higher-skilled, better-paid jobs.
• Hence it will no longer be possible for governments to deal with unemployment, insecure work and stagnant incomes by usual measures.
• In India a Planning Commission study of 1962 led by Pitambar Pant analysed how every citizen could be guaranteed a minimum standard of living by 1977.
• The idea was discussed by the 2016-17 Economic Survey. It was part of manifesto of Congress Party (NYAY) in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
• Basic income has moved into the mainstream of public debate in contemporary times mainly as a a response to two concerns which aggravate each other:
  1. Structural changes in the global economy – low wages and insecure employment with increasing the mobility of capital and increasing incomes from ownership of capital resulting in high inequalities. Thomas Piketty and Oxfam have drawn attention to this.
  2. ‘Industry 4.0’ and associated technological changes are expected to worsen these problems especially in developing countries.
• UBI is argued to be a better and efficient policy alternative to combat poverty, rising inequalities and unemployment.
• Its advocates range across the ideological spectrum. It is by both developed and developing countries for reasons which are briefly discussed in the table below.

JUSTIFICATIONS FOR DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

• Ageing population, stagnant median incomes, demand slump
• Increased automation (industrial revolution 4.0), rise of gig economy and job insecurity

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

• Poverty alleviation
• Failure of trickle down model
• Reduction of market distortion caused by government subsidies
• Administrative efficiency

How the context of present discussions is different?

• Covid‐19 presents the need for rapid and immediate relief. An income support can provide immediate help due to its design simplicity.
• Growth Contraction – Global growth is projected to be -4.9% (IMF, WEO, June update) in 2020. India’s GDP growth is projected at -4.5% (IMF, WEO, June update), lowest since 1961.
• Unemployment – the lockdown may push almost 40 crore people into poverty (ILO). Unemployment, already at a 45-year high in 2018, will only rise post-Covid-19. Even if there is a faster recovery, employment growth will take longer to recover.
• Large unorganized sector – Almost 90% of India’s workforce is in the informal sector characterized by less than minimum wages and no social security. This sector has also witnessed widespread job losses. Present schemes serve only pre-existing set of beneficiaries and a large number of deserving individuals are left out.
• The economic consequences of the virus will remain for several months ahead. Governments around the world are considering income transfers to ensure basic sustenance for the poor and vulnerable groups and boost domestic demand, at least till the economy normalises.

What is the case for Basic Income?

A) Social Justice

• UBI promotes a just and non-exploitative society.
• A society that fails to guarantee a decent minimum income to all citizens will fail the test of justice (John Rawls).
• UBI respects all individuals as free and equal. It promotes liberty because it is anti-paternalistic.
• It also promotes equality by reducing poverty.

B) Poverty Reduction

• A Basic Income may be the fastest way of reducing poverty.
• UBI is also more feasible in a low middle income country like India, as relatively low levels of guaranteed income can yield immense welfare gains.
• Such a scheme can address intra-household poverty and vulnerable sections such as small and marginal farmers, informal and low skilled workers and women.
• It can also act as a safety net against events like sudden job losses, income shocks and health issues which can trap individuals into poverty.

C) Agency

• The current welfare system reduces dignity of the poor by assuming that they cannot take correct economic decisions.
• As different individuals face different dimensions of poverty, the state is not in the best position to take economic decisions for them.
• BI releases citizens from paternalistic and clientelistic relationships with the state. A basic income treats them as active agents, not passive recipients.

D) Employment

• BI can provide minimum income security in an era of uncertain employment generation.
• It can create flexible and non-exploitative labour markets since individuals will no longer be forced to accept unjust working conditions for subsistence.
• It would not result in withdrawal of beneficiaries from the labour force if the income support is not too large.
• In fact, it can promote employment and economic activities as extra income can be used as interest-free working capital.
• While programmes like MNREGS lock up beneficiaries in low-productivity work, income support will provide them the opportunity for skilling and better employment options.

E) Administrative Efficiency:

• Existing welfare schemes suffer from defects like misallocation, leakages and exclusion errors.
• When the JAM trinity is fully adopted, a more administratively efficient mode of welfare delivery can be implemented.
• An income support scheme is better due to its in-built simplicity. (Abhijit Banerjee)

F) Alleviating rural distress

• LPG reforms have largely passed agriculture, rural India and the poor. This has resulted in agrarian and rural distress.
• The latest NSS All India Debt and Investment Survey (2013) show over 70% rural population is indebted.
• The poor borrow to meet consumption as well as contingency needs and rarely for productive purposes. They rarely accumulate assets.
• A guaranteed income transfer will reduce their vulnerability, boost rural demand without affecting labour-supply.

WHAT IS THE CASE AGAINST BASIC INCOME?

A) Reduces the incentive to work

• An income guarantee will discourage potential workers.
• Necessity is one of the dominant motivations for work without which workers will choose leisure over work.
• It has potential to create labour market distortions by affecting labour mobility like MGNREGA.
• But a minimal level of income support is unlikely to be a disincentive to work.
• Basic income is not meant to replace employment. One cannot live entirely on basic income.

B) Should income be detached from employment?

• Traditionally income and employment have been aligned in most societies
• But, society already delinks income from employment the rich and privileged in the form of inheritance or non-work related income.

C) Reciprocity

• Society is a “scheme of social cooperation” and income should be conditional to individual’s contribution to society (eg MNREGS and Food for Work programmes)
• But, social objectives dictate to create a society where extreme poverty doesn’t exist.

A Brief Summary of arguments

Favour

• Poverty and vulnerability reduction
• Choice and Agency
• Better targeting (inclusion) of poor.
• Insurance against income and other shocks.
• Improved financial inclusion due to greater usage of bank accounts and higher profits for banking correspondents (BC). Access to credit will improve due to increased incomes.
• Psychological benefits
• Administrative efficiency

Against

• Conspicuous and wasteful spending.
• Moral hazard (reduction in labour supply)
• Increased gender disparity as men are likely to exercise control over spending.
• Difficult implementation due to the current status of financial inclusion among the poor.
• High fiscal cost given political economy of exit. It may become difficult for the government to withdraw the scheme in case of failure.
• Opposition may arise from inclusion of rich individuals.
• Exposure to market risks (cash vs. food)

What is the evidence from empirical studies?

Various pilots and experiments have been conducted. Two of them are discussed below:

India

A pilot project conducted between 2010 and 2013, by SEWA, UNICEF and UNDP covering 6,000 beneficiaries in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.

Findings

• An unconditional income support was not a major disincentive to work.
• Beneficiaries became more productive as they shifted from wage labour to own cultivation which resulted in increased agricultural production and land cultivated.
• Improved nutritional uptake, school enrolment and attendance of female students and reduced incidence of indebtedness were observed.
• No statistical evidence of any increase in economic “bads” such as consumption of alcohol and tobacco.
• The study also shows that a right amount as a basic income has disproportionately higher positive effect than the monetary value.

Finland

Introduced its version of the UBI in 2017 as a social-welfare experiment for the unemployed section of society with roughly $600 every month as financial aid.

Findings

• Beneficiaries enjoyed greater financial security and mental health but there was no disincentive to work.
• They were free to do work they found meaningful, they were more able to take flexible but insecure opportunities
• But the trials have been inconclusive, showing psychological improvements among recipients but limited success in achieving economic or social objectives.

Recently, the Spanish government has decided to implement a national minimum income. People in around 1 million low-income households will get roughly $500 a month in income. The plan aims to reach 2.3 million people, and is expected to cost the government about 3 billion euros a year.

How a Basic Income Scheme is better than in-kind schemes?

A) What are the drawbacks of existing schemes?

• Large number of schemes – The Union government runs about 950 central sector and centrally sponsored sub-schemes accounting for about 5% of the GDP.Besides, most of the central sector schemes were ongoing for at least 15 years and 50% of them were over 25 years old. (Economic Survey 2015-16)
• Misallocation of resources across districts – The poorest districts receive a lower share of government resources when compared to their richer counterparts. The backward districts together accounts for 40% of the poor but receive 33% of the resources.
• Exclusion of genuine beneficiaries – Misallocation would mean that then some genuine beneficiaries would be excluded. For instance, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh account for over 50% of the poor in the country but access only a third of the resources spent on the MGNREGS in 2015-16.

B) How can income transfers overcome these Issues?

a) Misallocation

• The UBI, by design, should effectively tackle issues related to misallocation.
• The simplicity of the process also implies that the success of a UBI depends much less on local bureaucratic ability than other schemes.

b) Out of system leakage

• Could be reduced as direct transfers are made to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts.
• Since discretionary powers of authorities are eliminated almost wholly, the scope for diversion is reduced considerably.

c) Exclusion error

• Given the link between misallocation and exclusion errors, exclusion errors should be automatically reduced.
• Due to expanded coverage, exclusion errors under the scheme should be lower than existing targeted schemes.
• Most of these schemes are non-universal targeted programmes whose main problem is identification.
• Narrowly-targeted programmes are prone to exclusion and inclusion errors out of system leakages.

The core arguments over a universal basic income remain but Covid 19 pandemic makes a case for emergency temporary income payments targeted at the poor.

How the poor can be targeted?                                                                                                                                     

• India’s record of targeting has been poor with evidences of data manipulation and corruption, exclusion of the poor and leakages to the rich. Targeting was both inefficient and inequitable.
• Recognizing this, individual states- like Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh – universalized the PDS and a few other government schemes. The NFSA (2013) also mandated access to the PDS to nearly 70% of all households, choosing to exclude only the identifiably well-off.
• Empirical evidence suggests that the higher the coverage, the lower the leakages. Thus there is a gradual move towards greater inclusion error in order to avoid exclusion issues.
• But if basic public services are maintained, there is limited fiscal space for direct income support. It will have to be limited to some extent. Instead of targeting IN the poor, demonstrably well off should be targeted OUT.
• Datasets like SECC, 2011 can be used. It can be complemented by other datasets like the Agriculture Census, 2015-16 (small and marginal farmers), MGNREGA rolls from 2019 and those covered by Jan Arogya and Ujjwala schemes. Aadhaar can be used to rule out duplications.
• But none of these lists are perfect. The priority should be to err on the side of being inclusive.

Where is the fiscal space to finance a BI scheme?

• Indian economy was struggling even before the Covid-19 crisis. The fiscal deficit was already higher (4.6% of the GDP) than the limit prescribed by the FRBM Act (3.8%). Due to economic slowdown, revenue collection will also be certainly lowered this fiscal.
• Yet most observers have argued that in these extraordinary circumstances, if India believes that a basic income is required, then it should be able to find the money for it.
• Former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian has suggested various measures to create the fiscal space like reallocation of budget outlays, external borrowing, issuing government bonds and direct monetization of government deficit (having the Reserve Bank “print money” in exchange for government bonds).
• An analysis of budgetary allocations revealed that reduction of allocation by half to 11 departments, such as the election commission, department of posts etc could free up funds up to about 1% of the GDP.

ILO Recommended Financing Mechanisms

• Re-allocating public expenditures
• Increasing tax revenues
• Lobbying for aid and transfers
• Eliminating illicit financial flows
• Using fiscal and central bank foreign exchange reserves
• Restructuring existing debt

a) Streamlining inefficient subsidies

• Fiscal space for a basic income scheme can be created by streamlining and removing some extremely inefficient and difficult–to-remove middle class subsidies like the subsidy to Air India and fertilizer subsidy (Abhijit Banerjee)
• Estimates by NIPFP suggest that subsidies (central plus state) that mainly go to better-off people (‘non-merit subsidies’) amount to about 5% of GDP. The Economic Survey 2016-17 estimates that central subsidies for the non-poor/middle class households are equivalent to about 1% of GDP.
• A basic income should be additional to the poor’s existing consumption which includes consumption from public programs (PDS, MNREGA, etc.).
• Healthcare, education, water conservation and other merit subsidies should not be reduced to fund income transfers as these are meant for long-term improvement in human development.

b) Taxation

• ‘Revenues foregone’ (primarily tax concessions to companies) in the Union Budget are about 6% of GDP (2014-15 actuals). At least one-third of these revenues foregone can be made available.
• There is also scope for more taxation. India has a low tax-to-gdp ratio (around 10.6%) which is substantially lower than in China, Brazil and some other developing countries.
• Arvind Subramanian argues for redistributive equality for financing a basic income scheme by relying on a wealth tax of 1.5% for billionaires, a tax on properties worth more than Rs 1 crore and eliminating some “middle class subsidies”.

c) Merger of existing schemes

• The top 10 centrally sponsored or central sector schemes (not including subsidies) cost about 1.4% of GDP (2014-15 actuals) and the remaining 940-odd sub-schemes account for 2.3%.
• Many of these schemes have overlapping objectives and can be merged.
• Some resources may also be released by terminating some of the wasteful welfare programmes, but programmes like ICDS, mid-day meals, and MGNREGA should not be replaced.

d) State’s contribution

• The Central and state governments should work together because the Centre can provide resources more easily while the states will have a critical role in implementation.
• Initially, a minimum UBI can be funded wholly by the centre.
• The centre can then adopt a matching grant system wherein the centre’s contribution is equal to the state’s contribution.

While the fiscal space exists for a basic income scheme, the government will have to decide what expenditures to prioritize. Though BI may seem to be an attractive policy option, it should not take over the fiscal space for a well-functioning state. As the present crisis will persist for some time, former RBI Governor Urjit Patel has advocated that the government should keep some fiscal space open. At the same time adequate funding should be made available to help those suffering from severe deprivation.

How should an UBI should be designed and implemented?

The design should incorporate lessons learned through pilots and other experiments. It should consider the following constraints and guiding principles.

Constraints

• maximum possible coverage but no strict universality
• containing fiscal costs
• difficulty of exit from existing programmes
• the implementation capability of the Indian state

Guiding Principles

• De jure universality, de facto quasi-universality – to reduce the powerful resistance and high fiscal costs produced by complete universality, the scheme should approach targeting from an exclusion of the non-deserving perspective than the current inclusion of the deserving perspective.
• Gradualism – the UBI must be embraced in a deliberate, phased manner, weighing the costs and benefits at every step.

Schemes similar to UBI in India

• National Social Assistance Programme
• DBT for various scholarships and LPG subsidy
• PM Garib Kalyan package
• PM-KISAN
• Rythu Bandhu
• KALIA
• Rythu Bharosa

Considering the above some of the probable approaches are mentioned below:

• Start by offering UBI as a choice to beneficiaries of existing programs.
• UBI for women – Empirical evidence shows the higher social benefits and the multi-generational impact by investing in women.
• Universalize across groups – Basic Income first for certain vulnerable groups – widows, pregnant mothers, the old and the infirm.
• Redistributive resource transfers to states – A part of the redistributive resource transfers may be transferred by the centre directly into beneficiaries’ accounts.
• UBI in urban areas – These areas are less likely to suffer from poor banking infrastructure and lack of individuals with bank accounts.

Prerequisites for Success: JAM

• Effective financial inclusion and expansion of banking infrastructure is crucial for the success of basic income scheme.
• To reduce leakages a transparent and safe financial architecture that is accessible to all is required which can be provided by JAM.
• Success of the BI depends on the success of JAM.

How should UBI be determined?

• The 2016-17 Economic Survey calculated an income of Rs 7620/ individual/year based on the 2011-12 poverty estimates (Suresh Tendulkar).
• As the methodology adopted by the Suresh Tendulkar committee faced severe criticisms, there is a need to reassess what constitutes the minimum consumption basket.
• Although there is no universal principle of determination but a target a transfer should represent about 1/3rd of the current consumption of the poorest 40%.
• Income transfers can have various slabs as per multiplicity of deprivations and degree of vulnerability (as per SECC data).
• As Abhijit Banerjee has argued, the key is to create fiscal space first.

How to shield the income transfers from politics and inflation?

• To protect the ‘real’ value of cash transfers from inflation it should be revised periodically by indexing it to CPI.
• A politically neutral mechanism should be created to insulate the amount from blowing up due to competitive politics. For this income transfers could be set as a constant proportion of GDP.
• Alternatively, a special fund financed on a permanent basis from wealth and property taxes and the revenues from elimination of middle class subsidies can be created. (Subramanian)

What are the implementation challenges and concerns?

A) Financial Inclusion

• Financial inclusion in India has progressed substantially since the PMJDY but still nearly 1/3^rd of adults, mostly women, SCs, STs and elderly still do not have a bank account.
• Researchers have found that 53% of poor women in India don’t have PMJDY account.
• Last mile concerns – In a majority of states people are 3-5 km away from any form of access point (bank branches, ATMs and BCs). 26% of poor women live more than 5 km away from their nearest banking point
• In terms of JAM preparedness, considerable ground has been covered, but there is quite some way to go.
• Independent evaluations of the pilot exercises of DBT in lieu of PDS in Chandigarh and Pondicherry emphasize the need for an improved digital financial infrastructure.

B) High Fiscal Costs

• Cash transfers offering even poverty-line income are estimated to cost around 10% of GDP.
• In theory, non-merit subsidies could be abolished but in practice, this is politically unlikely. Therefore cash transfers may be over and above current expenditure.
• Also, the fiscal deficit has already breached the limit and government revenues are expected to decline sharply this fiscal.
• Additional borrowing can be counter-productive as higher fiscal deficit will fuel inflation which will hurt the poor the most.

C) Political challenges

• Vested interests against replacing existing welfare programmes are too strong.
• Once implemented, competitive politics will ensure the continuation of schemes like BI, even if it fails.
• Electoral competition will push the amount of BI further at the risk of fiscal imbalance.

D) Authentication errors

• While Aadhar is designed to solve the identification problem, it cannot, on its own, solve the targeting problem.
• While Aadhaar coverage has improved but some states report authentication failures: 49% failure rates are estimated for Jharkhand which has led to starvation deaths.
• Failure to identify genuine beneficiaries result will in exclusion errors.

E) Supply side and capacity problems

• A basic income can address the problems of demand and purchasing power, but not supply-side and capacity problems.
• Without addressing supply-side bottlenecks, income support will be inflationary.
• But inflationary pressures may trigger a virtuous cycle with entrepreneurs responding to the assured demand.

F) Leakages

• While evidence supports universalization of in-kind transfers reduced leakages in India, it is not clear if a cash transfer will necessarily result in lower leakages.
• Due to very large amount of cash flowing through the system, there could be a perverse incentive resulting in greater corruption.
• It is an open question if a basic income today will necessarily work better than simply universalizing other in-kind transfers it tends to replace.

Way Forward

Basic income may be a good idea which can lead to improved health and educational outcomes and a more productive workforce. But it is untested anywhere with India’s level of income disparity and inequality. There is need for good large scale pilots of sufficient time to generate empirical evidence.

At the same time, basic income system is not a substitute for state capacity; it is a way of ensuring that state welfare transfers are more efficient. In the long run, state capacity needs to be enhanced to provide a whole range of public goods. State institutions must be strengthened to deliver the universal basic services (7 core services: health care; education; shelter; food; transport; legal and democracy; and information – which should be available to all citizens regardless of their ability to pay) and to regulate delivery of services by the private sector. Direct transfers should not be at the expense of these services.

BI should not decrease the incentive for real reforms like land and labour reforms, justice system reforms, logistics and connectivity infrastructure etc. Jobs creation remains crucial and focus should be on deepening and widening the labour market. A BI could remain as a safety net, but not as an alternative to employment generation.

For now, a targeted income support should be the priority rather than universal one because poorer households require more help than richer ones. Income support would boost demand as well as provide a safety net.The situation surely justifies temporary emergency income payments rather than a permanent income stream. The recent UNDP report concludes that the measure is feasible and urgently needed. A guaranteed basic income system can be a source of basic security for the poor. It should be paid at least for the duration of the pandemic and economic slowdown.

Raghuram Rajan has also advocated a temporary income transfer scheme. But Jean Dreze is skeptical that an emergency BI scheme can be quickly implemented. He voices concern if income transfers are meant to replace programmes like PDS and MGNREGS.

Rapid and inclusive economic growth is the most powerful poverty-reduction tool in the long term. In the interim, the core complementarity between income and in-kind transfers should be understood. A mix of cash as well as in-kind transfers like food is vital for an efficient response to the crisis.

ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

1. DEVELOPMENT OF GREAT NICOBAR STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE AND ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS

THE CONTEXT: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change gave environmental clearance for the ambitious Rs 72,000 crore development project on the strategically important Great Nicobar Island.

THE EXPLANATION:

• A greenfield city has been proposed, including an International Container Trans-shipment Terminal (ICTT), a greenfield international airport, a power plant.
• The port will be controlled by the Indian Navy, while the airport will have dual military-civilian functions and will cater to tourism as well.
• A total 166.1 sq km along the southeastern and southern coasts of the island have been identified for project along a coastal strip of width between 2 km and 4 km.
• Some 130 sq km of forests have been sanctioned for diversion, and 9.64 lakh trees are likely to be felled.

SIGNIFICANCE:

• Great Nicobar is the southernmost island of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a cluster of about 836 islands in the eastern Bay of Bengal.
• The two groups of which are separated by the 150-km wide Ten Degree Channel.
• The Andaman Islands lie to the north of the channel, and the Nicobar Islands to the south.
• Indira Point on the southern tip of Great Nicobar Island is India’s southernmost point, less than 150 km from the northernmost island of the Indonesian archipelago.

Ecosystem

• The Great Nicobar Island has tropical wet evergreen forests, mountain ranges reaching almost 650 m above sea level, and coastal plains.
• The Island has two national parks (Campbell Bay National Park &Galathea National Park) and a biosphere reserve.
• Many endangered species are found at the Island. The leatherback sea turtle is the island’s flagship species.

Tribes of Nicobar

• Great Nicobar is home to the Shompen and Nicobarese tribal peoples.
• The Shompen are hunter-gatherers who depend on forest and marine resources for sustenance.
• The Nicobarese, who lived along the west coast of the island were mostly relocated after the 2004 tsunami.
• An estimated 237 Shompen and 1,094 Nicobarese individuals now live in a 751 sq km tribal reserve, some 84 sq km of which is proposed to be de-notified.

Why government is keen to develop this Island?

Economic reasons

• The government’s greater goal is to leverage the locational advantage of the island for economic and strategic reasons.
• Great Nicobar is equidistant from Colombo to the southwest and Port Klang and Singapore to the southeast.
• It is positioned close to the East-West international shipping corridor, through which a very large part of the world’s shipping trade passes.
• The proposed ICTT can potentially become a hub for cargo ships travelling on this route.
• As per the NITI Aayog report, the proposed port will allow Great Nicobar to participate in the regional and global maritime economy by becoming a major player in cargo transhipment.

Strategic & Security reasons

• The proposal to develop Great Nicobar was first floated in the 1970s, and its importance for national security and consolidation of the Indian Ocean Region has been repeatedly underlined.
• Increasing Chinese assertion in the Bay of Bengal and the Indo-Pacific has added great urgency to this imperative in recent years.

Steps taken by the government to address these concerns

• The Zoological Survey of India is currently in the process of assessing how much of the reef will have to be relocated for the project.
• India has successfully translocated a coral reef from the Gulf of Mannar to the Gulf of Kutch earlier.
• A conservation plan for the leatherback turtle is also being put in place.
• As per the government, the project site is outside the eco-sensitive zones of Campbell Bay and Galathea National Park.

2. INDIA GETS CITES RULES EASED FOR EXPORT OF SHISHAM ITEMS

THE CONTEXT: During the 19th meeting of the Conference of Parties to CITES is being held in Panama where India got rules for export of timber-based products made of Shisham or North India Rosewood eased under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES).

THE EXPLANATION:

About Sheesham:

• Sheesham wood is also known as Dalbergia Sissoo, a deciduous tree, called Sheesham in the Indian subcontinent. It is grown across the length and breadth of the sub-Himalayan region, extending from Assam in the east to River Indus.
• These forests go all the way across Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam. Here, it is known by various names, like Sheesham, Shishan, Shisham, Sissoo or Sisu.
• It is the state tree of the Indian state of Punjab where this wood ranks No. 2 after teak in size of cultivation. It has various applications apart from supplying timber, such as being planted on roadsides and on tea plantations for shade and along canals.
• Sheesham (Dalbergia sissoo) is included in Appendix II of the convention, thereby requiring to follow CITES regulations for the trade of the species. As of now every consignment of weight above 10 kg requires CITES permit.
• Due to this restriction exports of furniture and handicrafts made of Dalbergia sissoo from India has been continuously falling from an estimated Rs 1000 crore per annum before the listing, to Rs 500-600 crore per annum after the listing.
• The decrease in exports of Dalbergia sissoo products has affected the livelihoods of around 50,000 artisans who work with the species.

Changes approved:

• On India’s initiative a proposal to clarify the quantity of Shisham (Dalbergia sissoo) items such as furniture and artefacts was considered in the current meeting.
• After sustained deliberations by Indian representatives, it was agreed upon that any number of Dalbergia sissoo timber-based items can be exported as a single consignment in a shipment without CITES permits if the weight of each individual item of this consignment is less than 10 kg.
• Further, it was agreed that for net weight of each item only timber will be considered and any other item used in the product like metal etc. will be ignored.
• This is a great relief for the Indian artisans and furniture industry.

VALUE ADDITION:
CITES

• CITES, which stands for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is a global agreement among governments to regulate or ban international trade in species under threat.
• In the mid-20th century, governments were beginning to recognize that trade in some wild animals and plants had a devastating impact on those species.
• These species were being driven toward extinction through unsustainable use for food, fuel, medicine, and other purposes.
• And while individual governments could control what happened within their borders, they did not have a way to address the impacts of international trade in these species.
• In 1973, 21 countries addressed this issue by signing the CITES agreement.

About the Agreement:

• CITES remains one of the cornerstones of international conservation.
• There are 184-member Parties and trade is regulated in more than 38,000 species.
• Representatives of CITES nations meet every two to three years at a Conference of the Parties (or COP) to review progress and adjust the lists of protected species.

The protected species are grouped into three categories with different levels of protection:
Appendix I –

• Includes the world’s most endangered plants and animals, such as tigers and gorillas.
• International commercial trade in these species, or even parts of them, is completely banned, except in rare cases such as scientific research.

Appendix II –

• Contains species like corals that are not yet threatened with extinction, but which could become threatened if unlimited trade were allowed.
• Also included are “look-alike” species that closely resemble those already on the list for conservation reasons.
• Plants and animals in this category can be traded internationally, but there are strict rules.

Appendix III –

• Species whose trade is only regulated within a specific country can be placed on Appendix III if that country requires cooperation from other nations to help prevent exploitation.
• CITES also brings together law enforcement officers from wildlife authorities, national parks, customs, and police agencies to collaborate on efforts to combat wildlife crime targeted at animals such as elephants and rhinos.

3. NEW SPECIES OF TARDIGRADE

THE CONTEXT: New species of tardigrade named Macrobiotusnaginae was discovered by researchers at Finland’s Rokua National Park.

THE EXPLANATION:

What are tardigrades?

• Tardigrades are tiny and highly resilient creatures that are capable of withstanding a variety of threats, including those that are capable of wiping out the majority of known species. Various species of tardigrades are found across diverse terrains, from mountains to oceans to ice sheets. Due to their adaptability, opportunities exist outside tardigrades’ natural habitats.
• While tardigrades generally require water, they are also capable of enduring prolonged dry spells, making them highly adaptable to desert regions.
• During dry weather, tardigrades enter into the state of anhydrobiosis – the process in which an organism becomes dry and dormant until favorable environmental conditions return.

During anhydrobiosis, tardigrades expel their body’s water and become a dry and nearly unbreakable speck called a tun. The tardigrade can remain as a tun for years or even decades. It will revive rapidly in the presence of water. The tun state can shield tardigrades from a variety of threats like high temperature, little to no oxygen levels, X-ray bombardment, gunfire and space vacuum. This will help tardigrades survive in foreign terrains when wind sweeps them away from the natural habitats.

About the new species

• The new species was named Macrobiotus naginae, after Nagini – the fictional snake character from Harry Potter books.
• It was found at the Rokua National Park in Finland’s North Ostrobothnia region.
• It was found to subsist in a dune woodland on lichen and moss. This habitat is currently threatened because of human activities.
• The new species is the fifth known member of the Macrobiotus pseudo hufelandi complex, a small group of tardigrades having smaller legs and claws for living underground.
• They developed smaller limbs to effectively crawl through sand or soil.

About Rokua National Park

The Rokua National Park is a UNESCO global geopark in Finland. It is one of Finland’s oldest national parks. It was established in 1956 to protect the natural-state of lichen heaths and the unique geological features of the region.

GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND INTERVENTIONS

4. CENTRE UNVEILS NORMS TO CURB FAKE REVIEWS ON E-COMMERCE SITES

THE CONTEXT: The Central government recently unveiled the new standard – Indian Standard (IS) 19000:2022 on “Online Consumer Reviews” and ratings, which has been prepared by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

THE EXPLANATION:

To combat the threat of fraudulent and deceptive product and service reviews, all e-commerce players, travel and ticketing portals and online food delivery platforms will soon be required to voluntarily reveal all paid or sponsored reviews.

Why it is significant?

• Online reviews have greater influence on consumers mainly in three sectors – tour and travel, restaurant and eateries, and consumer durables. With the notification of the standard, India will be the first country in the world to have such a norm for Online Consumer Reviews.
• As per the new standard, the BIS has defined reviews as solicited and unsolicited.
• The person responsible for handling the review in any organisation will be called the review administrator. The new standard gives an option for the reviewers to withdraw their reviews
• The new standard will be applicable even for independent third-party entities that post such reviews on any online platform. There are websites in countries like Turkey and Moldova where there is a business of fake reviews and companies pay money and get reviews.
• The focus of the new standard is adequate disclosure, as the online platforms have to specify the period when the reviews were collected so that consumers are not misled.
• Representatives from all major players, including Google and Meta, were part of the committee that developed the final standard, thus high compliance is to be expected, as fake reviews also harm the industry.
• Failure to comply with the BIS standard is unfair trade practice, and such entities may face legal action under the Consumer Protection Act.
• The BIS will come up with a conformity assessment scheme to certify the websites hosting such reviews. The websites will display such certification for consumers information.

VALUE ADDITION:

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS):

• It is the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India.
• Initially established as a society, the BIS was made a statutory body under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016, with its headquarters in New Delhi.
• It has 25 members drawn from Central or State Governments, industry, scientific and research institutions and consumer organisations.
• It also works as a WTO-TBT enquiry point for India.
• The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO-TBT) Agreement, is an international treaty (binding on all WTO members) administered by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The activities of BIS:

• Standards formulation
• International activities
• Product Certification
• Hallmarking
• Laboratory services
• Training services – National Institute of Training for Standardisation
• Consumer Affairs and Publicity

Standard formulation:

• BIS formulates Indian Standards in line with the national priorities for various sectors that have been grouped under 15 Departments.
• Corresponding to these Departments 15 Division Councils exist.
• The standards cover important segments of the economy and help the industry in upgrading the quality of their goods and services.

5. KAMENG HYDROPOWER STATION

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Prime Minister dedicated the 600 MW Kameng Hydro Power Station (HPS) to the nation on 19 November.

THE EXPLANATION:

About Kameng hydropower station

• The 600 MW Kameng hydropower project was developed by the state-owned North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO).
• It is situated in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district.
• Stretching across more than 80 km, this project was developed at the cost of some Rs.8,200 crore.
• This run-of-the-river scheme makes use of the flows from Bichom and Tenga rivers – the tributaries of River Kameng.
• It has 2 dams (Bichom and Tenga) and a powerhouse having four units of 150 MW each to generate 3,353 million units of electricity each year.
• The water from the two dams is transported via a Head Race Tunnel into the powerhouse in West Kameng to drive 150 MW vertical turbine in each of the four units.

How will the project benefit Arunachal Pradesh?

• The project will contribute towards making Arunachal Pradesh a power-surplus state. It will enable the state to receive a share of 83 MW power. In 2022-23, the state is likely to have a power surplus both in terms of peak demand and energy requirements on yearly basis for the year 2022-23. The yearly demand for power in Arunachal Pradesh is 851 million units. The state will have 1,373 million units available. This creates a surplus of 521 million units.
• Besides generating revenue, this project will also increase job opportunities for educated youth and promote industrialization of the region.
• The project will be a major step towards achieving India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) pledged under the 2015 Paris Agreement. It will be part of the projected hydro capacity addition of 30,000 MW by the end of the present decade.

How Arunachal Pradesh have hydropower potential?

• Arunachal Pradesh accounts for 40% of India’s hydropower potential. Therefore, this state is considered the “powerhouse of India”. It is endowed with a hydropower potential of 50,064 MW. Despite this huge potential, the actual utilization is less than 800 MW. Several hydropower projects are being implemented by the central and state governments to address this gap.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

6. GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

THE CONTEXT: On November 21 this year, India is set to take over the chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) for 2022-23.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI)?

• The Global Partnership in Artificial Intelligence was launched on June 15, 2020. It is a multi-stakeholder initiative that was developed by the G7 alliance.
• Its objective is to fill the gap between theory and practice on artificial intelligence by promoting cutting-edge research and related activities.
• This initiative promotes global cooperation on artificial intelligence technology by bringing together experts from fields like science, industry, civil society, governments, international bodies and academia on a single platform.

Who are the members of the GPAI?

• The GPAI currently has 25 member states. These are Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the UK, the US and the EU. India became part of this international alliance in 2020 as a founding member.

GPAI summits

The inaugural edition of the GPAI summit was held on December 3 and 4 of 2020. It was hosted by Montreal, Canada. The second edition was held on November 11 and 12, 2021. The two offices of the GPAI are situated in these two cities, with one in each location.
The third edition of the summit, which is being held in 2022, was organized in Tokyo. It was held in Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo. It focuses on 4 themes. These are:

• Responsible AI
• Data governance
• Future of work
• Innovation and commercialisation

On the first day of the 3rd GPAI summit, France – the current Council Chair – handed over the presidency to India. India became the Council Chair after it received more than two-thirds majority of the first-preference votes, followed by Canada and the United States respectively.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTION

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q1. ‘Arribadas’ refers to which of the following?
a) Folk dance form of Assam
b) Mass nesting phenomenon of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles
c) Nesting of Migratory birds in Chilika lake
d) Seasonal migration of nomads in Himalayan region

Answer: B

Explanation:

• Mass nesting phenomenon of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles is called arribadas (Spanish term for mass nesting)

About Olive Ridley Turtles:

• Olive Ridley Turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) are migratory species visiting Indian coasts for nesting.
• These turtles travel from South Pacific Ocean to breed on the coast of Gahirmatha.
• Gahirmatha in Kendrapara district, 150 km from State capital Bhubaneswar, is the world’s largest rookery for Olive Ridley sea turtles.
• Their mass nesting phenomenon is called arribadas.
• IUCN Status: Vulnerable
• They have highest degree of protection as they are included in Schedule-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The turtle eggs normally take 45 days to hatch. After this, tiny hatchlings come out and make their way to the sea.
• Threats: Heavy predation of eggs by dogs and wild animals, indiscriminate fishing with trawlers and gill nets, and beach soil erosion.

[WpProQuiz 371]

THE CONTEXT: In order to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, governments across the world have imposed measures like lockdown and social distancing. However, these measures have caused collateral damage to almost every sector of the economy, so much so that the IMF held the current economic crisis could be the worst ever since the Great depression 1929. There is a need for the preservation of the socio-economic system during the Great Lockdown. The government of India can think of implementing Emergency Basic Income (EBI). EBI is a kind of Universal Basic Income provided during a crisis like the Covid-19, but subject to a rollback when normalcy returns.

THE PRESENT ECONOMIC CRISIS DUE TO COVID-19

The present situation poses a unique economic challenge. Unlike a normal slump, when policies can be tailored to finance and raise demand, here, the challenge is of keeping productive capacity intact, even as many firms and workers remain idle.The global economic system that has taken shape over the past four decades is much more fragile than in 1918. What further distinguishes the current crisis from earlier ones, including the 2008 financial crisis is that this one is not just economic but also a social one, instantly affecting the lives of everyone in more ways than one. Millions are going to lose their incomes and will not be able to get daily necessities for survival.

According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called the present situation “coronacoma”, means it the economic equivalent of a medically induced coma, “in which some brain functions are deliberately shut down to give the patient time to heal.”

As Krugman argued, the economic response to the crisis will have to include two parts:

1. An immediate disaster relief component- that ensures the survival of both firms and workers who have been rendered idle.
2. A stimulus component – that aims to repair and restart production lines during the exit phase of the lockdown.

For a country like India, with a large informal sector and a weak social safety net, the immediate disaster relief component is going to be much tougher than the stimulus component.India’s informal economy has about 50 crore working persons and would be among the most affected by the COVID-19 related shutdowns.

THE RELIEF MEASURES BY INDIA

The Union and state governments have announced some relief measures, they appear to be grossly inadequate to meet the challenge. Compared to most other countries, India’s relief-cum-stimulus measures so far appear puny.

India’s measures are very lower than the fiscal packages announced by various countries.

• The US announced a $2.2 trillion stimulus on a $20 trillion GDP base.
• Malaysia, whose per capita income is four times that of India, has announced a package that is 16 times bigger.
• Even poorer neighbour Pakistan has a much larger covid-19 response package (as share of its GDP) compared to India.
• Thailand, whose per capita income (PPP) is a little more than two times that of India, has announced a package that is 10 times bigger (as a share of GDP) than India.

EBI IS NEED OF THE HOUR

Due to the present lockdown, millions may lose their incomes and face difficulty in receiving things of daily necessities for survival, resulting in social unrest. The Emergency Basic Income (EBI) could solve this unrest.

The Emergency Basic Income (EBI) is a kind of

What is Universal Basic Income?

• The Economic Survey of India 2016-17 has advocated the concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as an alternative to the various social welfare schemes in an effort to reduce poverty.
• Idea behind the Universal Basic Income is that every person should have a right to a basic income to cover his needs, just by virtue of being a citizen.

The components of UBI

UBI has three components

• Universality- It is universal in nature.
• Unconditionality- There are no preconditions attached with the cash transferred to the beneficiary.
• Agency – Respecting the poor persons’ decision making ability and not having a paternalistic attitude towards them.

Universal Basic Income(UBI) provided during a crisis like the Covid-19, but subject to a rollback when normalcy returns.

• The EBI provided through the direct cash transfer mechanism will not only arrest potential social unrest but also ensure that there is continued aggregate demand to sustain the economy.

Some of the states have announced the enhancement of rations under the Food Security Act.

• While providing additional foodgrains is useful, with broken supply chains and crumbling logistics, it may have its own challenges.
• Also, the circumstances, risk and shocks in which people are trapped in lockdown are varied. The EBI allows that individual to decide how such risks should be mitigated and how priorities are to be set.
• Thus, EBI will complement the steps (providing essential goods through PDS) taken by the government.

The lockdown has dragged many people into the poverty trap. Thus, EBI may simply be the fastest way of reducing poverty induced by the lockdown.

Existing welfare schemes are riddled with misallocation, leakages and exclusion of the poor. However, the trinity of Jan-Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile (JAM) can enable proper implementation of EBI and can reduce inclusion and exclusion issues to a larger extent.

CHALLENGES

• Although most people have a unique ID by now (Aadhaar), the most vulnerable section of society doesn’t have Aadhar and a functional bank account or access to mobile or internet (for e-transfers).
• The latest district-wise data on these parameters come from the National Family Health Survey for 2015-16. It showed that despite gains in access to bank accounts and mobile phones, there were still significant disparities across districts. Internet access was limited across most districts.

• The Union Government has sought to provide Rs 500 per month to women in a household (during the lockdown). However, the amount is quite low to call it a significant income support.
• Already Indian government has been facing a financial crunch with respect to social sector schemes. Thus, providing an EBI may add to the fiscal burden of the government.

WAY FORWARD

The EBI programme with a fixed and transparent clause can inspire the confidence of both ordinary citizens and help resolve the trade-off between lives and livelihoods. EBI must also include an in-kind transfer component. The ratio of cash to in-kind transfers is something that is best left for states to decide. The Union Government can channelize the savings from the global crude oil price fall to fund EBI, without compromising macroeconomic fundamentals. There is need for a functional JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile) system, as it will ensure that the cash transfer directly into the account of a beneficiary.

CONCLUSION: In the outbreak of COVID-19, several countries are considering massive fiscal stimulus packages to blunt the concurrent crises of the pandemic and the unravelling economic depression. In such situation, Emergency basic income will not only arrest potential social unrest but also ensure that there is continued aggregate demand to sustain our economy. Like other countries, India too could explore unconventional options, such as a special purpose vehicle, to fund this programme as long as the Great Lockdown lasts.