(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. Harvard professor Claudia Goldin wins Nobel Economics Prize for gender gap research READ MORE
2. Scientists untangle mystery about the universe’s earliest galaxies READ MORE
3. Sri Lanka to take over as Chair of Indian Ocean Rim Association READ MORE  
4. Ahead of Bima Vistaar rollout, IRDAI issues guidelines on Bima Vahaks READ MORE
5. ICMR to set up study to develop solutions to remedy childhood undernutrition READ MORE
6. What is multimodal artificial intelligence and why is it important? READ MORE
7. Joint Statement during the State Visit of the President of Tanzania to India and launch of Strategic Partnership between India and Tanzania (8-10 October 2023) READ MORE  
8. Appointment of Manipur HC CJ to be notified soon, Centre tells apex court READ MORE
9. Unemployment rate drops to 6.6% in urban areas in Q1 READ MORE

Main

GS Paper- 1

1. Mental health and the floundering informal worker READ MORE
2. Socio-economic takeaways from Bihar caste survey READ MORE
3. Does India need a caste census? READ MORE
4. Extreme weather impact: 20,000 children displaced every day in last 6 years READ MORE  
5. How climate crisis will trigger more water wars in India READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. The state of India’s Scheduled Areas READ MORE
2. Uncertain timing, Census and delimitation hurdles cast shadow over women’s reservation READ MORE
3. Law Commission age of consent recommendations threaten to criminalise the young READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. The ‘invisible’ disability of mental illness: Challenges of social security access READ MORE
2. Fundamental health services for women: Analysing gender disparities READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. The end of the two-state solution: Hamas’s spectacular terrorism will push back Palestinian statehood by a generation READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. With food inflation limited to dal roti, why govt policy may need changes READ MORE  
2. Economics Nobel 2023: How Claudia Goldin shed light on the status of women in the workforce READ MORE
3. Is RBI heading in the right direction? READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Why India is launching a national framework for climate services Extreme weather impact: 20,000 children displaced every day in last 6 years READ MORE
2. Natural disasters occur due to our apathy towards environment READ MORE

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

1. More people moved into high flood zones, exposing larger populations to water disasters: World Bank READ MORE
2. Sikkim’s Chungthang dam collapse signals the need for dam safety & emissions reduction READ MORE

INTERNAL SECURITY

1. Back to square one on theatre commands READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. It’s okay to be not okay READ MORE
2. Only we can reform our society READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. Empowering women with the right to a safe and inclusive online environment is a crucial step toward a more equitable and just society in the digital age. Comment.
2. There is a need to redefine the relationship between the State and universities for a truly autonomous and thriving academic environment. Comment on the statement in light of recent developments.
3. While constitutional safeguards and legal protection for Dalits exist, caste-based discrimination has taken on new forms in the modern era. Discuss why the safeguards and legal protection are failed to address the issue of discrimination in higher educational institutions?

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart.
• The disturbing trends seen in women’s mental health call for immediate gender mainstreaming action in mental health policies.
• Policy neglect, uncertain job market, and increased contractualisation are making labourers’ economic condition worse. Inflation is negating purchasing power too.
• Wages of informal labourers neither become an election issue nor do they count as a measure of poverty.
• ]The only way to protect the Indian rupee is through price stability. Assured stability through firmer anti-inflationary measures sends an effective message to overseas investors.
• We need to enhance our responsibility and responsiveness towards climate cure and healing; we must investment in climate-pro solutions.
• Enhance cooperation for mitigation efforts, and develop sustainable and viable ecosystems for a crisis-free society.
• A caste census is deemed discriminatory and opposed by those who seek equal rights for all. Besides, opinions are sharply divided on its impact.
• The release of the socio-economic profile of various SRCs can bring back the lost focus on the ‘economic’ aspect of social justice.
• The promise of a caste census could influence outcomes in the upcoming assembly elections but not do much for the cause of universal welfarism.
• India and South Korea, guided by universal values, should build beyond bilateralism as they refuse to be bystanders amid global disorder.
• Law Commission recommendations on age of consent sidestep key question of how to protect the young from sexual abuse, while ensuring they are not punished for consensual sexual activity with peers.
• Informal workers, despite their significant contribution to national income, are perennially exposed to economic, physical, and, in turn, mental vulnerabilities.
• The only way forward is for a Palestinian leadership that can credibly signal to the Israeli people that it will not use the freedoms it gains from any peace deal to hurt Israel. The prospects for that seem dim.

50-WORD TALK

• The shocking failure of Israel’s security services to preempt Hamas’ brutal strikes illustrates the damage caused when elected dictators operate without scrutiny and the perils of emulating Erdogan-style rule. PM Netanyahu’s politics undermined Jerusalem’s military and intelligence leadership. Israel will prevail—but at a price that need not have been paid.
• Army signing contracts worth Rs 18,000 crore under emergency procurement and asking it be institutionalised shows how convoluted military procurement has become. It is a shame that Services have to use EP to fill up critical gaps. This piecemeal approach should be stopped and procurement systems decluttered for faster procurement.

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.

RELEVANCE TO UPSC SYLLABUS: GS 3: INDIAN ECONOMY AND ISSUES RELATING TO PLANNING, MOBILIZATION OF RESOURCES

THE CONTEXT

India’s gross revenues from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) stand at over ₹9.92 lakh crore in September 2023 which is halfway through the financial year, marking an 11.1% increase over collections between April and September 2022.

MORE ON THE NEWS

• Central and state governments collected ₹62 trillion in Goods and Services Tax (GST) in September, 2023 marking the fourth highest monthly collection since the inception of the indirect tax regime and a 10% annual growth from the year-ago period.
• It places government at a comfortable place regarding GST revenues in the fiscal context, as during the January-March 2024 quarter central bank expects real GDP growth to slow to 5.7% from 7.8% in the first quarter.

WHAT IS GST?

• GST has been introduced by 101st Amendment Act of 2016 and is one indirect tax for the whole nation, which will make India one unified common market. GST is a single tax on the supply of goods and services, right from the manufacturer to the consumer. It essentially is a tax only on value addition at each stage.
• The final consumer will thus bear only the GST charged by the last dealer in the supply chain, with set-off benefits at all the previous stages.

At the Central level, the following taxes are being subsumed:

1. Central Excise Duty
2. Additional Excise Duty
3. Service Tax
4. Additional Customs Duty commonly known as Countervailing Duty
5. Special Additional Duty of Customs.

At the State level, the following taxes are being subsumed:

1. Subsuming of State Value Added Tax/Sales Tax,
2. Entertainment Tax (other than the tax levied by the local bodies), Central Sales Tax (levied by the Centre and collected by the States),
3. Octroi and Entry tax,
4. Purchase Tax,
5. Luxury tax, and
6. Taxes on lottery, betting and gambling.

BENEFITS OF GST

• Easy compliance: All the tax payer services such as registrations, returns, payments, etc. are available to the taxpayers online, which would make compliance easy and transparent.
• Uniformity of tax rates and structures: GST ensure that indirect tax rates and structures are common across the country, thereby increasing certainty and ease of doing business.
• Removal of cascading: A system of seamless tax-credits throughout the value-chain, and across boundaries of States, ensure that there is minimal cascading of taxes. This reduce hidden costs of doing business.
• Higher revenue efficiency: GST mechanism decrease the cost of collection of tax revenues of the Government, and therefore, lead to higher revenue efficiency.

GST COUNCIL

• GST Council has been introduced for smooth and efficient administration of GST by cooperation and coordination under Article 279-A in the constitution of India.
• The GST Council consists of the following members:

1. The Union Finance Minister (as Chairman).
2. The Union Minister of State in-charge of Revenue or Finance.
3. The Minister in charge of Finance or Taxation or any other Minister, nominated by each State Government.
4. The members of the Council from the states have to choose one amongst themselves to be the Vice-Chairperson of the Council. They can also decide his term.
5. The Union Cabinet also decided to include the Chairperson of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) as a permanent invitee (non-voting) to all proceedings of the Council.

• The council is devised in such a way that the centre will have 1/3^rd voting power and the states have 2/3^rd. The decisions are taken by 3/4^th

Reasons for the Increase in GST Revenue

• Improvement in economic activity: One of the main reasons for the increase in GST revenue is the improvement in economic activity.
• Enhanced compliance: Another reason for the increase in GST revenue is the enhanced compliance and anti-evasion measures taken by the government.
• Reforms introduced by government: The government has introduced several reforms such as e-invoicing, e-way bills, Aadhaar authentication, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to plug leakages and prevent tax evasion.

THE ISSUES

• Impact of slowdown not evenly distributed: The impact of the slowdown has not been evenly distributed across income groups and categories.
• Beyond the macro resilience that these numbers indicate, a few areas of concern deserve closer scrutiny from policymakers and the GST Council:
• Slowdown in growth of GST: There is slowdown in the growth of GST inflows and in domestic transactions and services imports between July and September, the slowest since July 2021.
• Mandatory E-invoicing: E-invoicing became mandatory for all firms with a turnover of over ₹5 crore since August 1, 2023 ,so there comes need of another compliance mechanism.
• Shrink in revenue from goods: Revenues from goods imports that have shrunk four times in 2023 despite high import. Authorities must check for revenue leakages from imports.

THE TRENDS

• Increase in taxpayers: A substantial increase has been observed across different categories individuals, firms and companies. For example, number of taxpayers increased by 64% between 2014 and 2022.
• More number of returns filed: There is growth in number of taxpayers filing returns.

However, this growth in taxpayers is insufficient as the most of the tax returns are associated with nil taxes.

• Rise in direct tax: There is growth in direct tax collections and higher tax buoyancy with increase in taxpayers and increase in returns filed which suggests noticeable gains in compliance.

THE WAY FORWARD

• Strengthening of GST Council: There is need of strengthening of GST Council for its better functioning. There have been instances of disagreements in resolving issues such as dispute resolution mechanism and revenue-sharing formulas that needs to be resolved.
• Simplification of GST rates: The rationalization of GST rates and slabs would reduce compliance costs, improve tax buoyancy, and eliminate classification disputes.
• Mechanism for higher revenue generation: An increase in returns filed is however not an end in itself. It must lead to higher revenues for which newer mechanism needs to be developed.
• Need scrutiny: Amid broadly healthy GST inflows, some trends need greater scrutiny. There is need of capacity building of state tax authorities as success of GST depends on adapting to the new requirements.

THE CONCLUSION

With higher revenue and simplified tax regime, GST is termed as positive step towards shifting Indian economy from the informal to formal economy. There is need of certain reforms to overcome the impending challenges.

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

1. Explain the rationale behind the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act of 2017. How has COVID-19 impacted the GST compensation fund and created new federal tensions? (2020)
2. Enumerate the indirect taxes which have been subsumed in the goods and services tax (GST) in India. Also, comment on the revenue implications of the GST introduced in India since July 2017.(2019)

 MAINS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. Although there has been improvement in GST revenue collection, the GST regime suffers from multiple challenges. Comment.

SOURCE: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/revenue-riddles-the-hindu-editorial-on-gst-inflows-and-areas-of-concern/article67389922.ece

RELEVANCE TO UPSC SYLLABUS: GS 1: HISTORY; PERSONALITIES; GS 2: SOCIETY: CASTE SYSTEM

THE CONTEXT

The caste survey released by the Bihar government has ignited a fresh debate on the caste-politics dynamics in India. The caste system has been a subject of intense political debate and reform efforts from the Colonial times. This article mentions how Ambedkar and Gandhi’s contrasting views paved way for caste reservation.

HISTORY OF CASTE RESERVATION

• From the British era to the Mandal versus Kamandal politics, caste has been central to the socio-political narrative of mainland India.
• Two prominent figures who have significantly contributed to this discourse are Mahatma Gandhi and Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. Both Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar differed over how to address caste inequities through the electoral system. Their subsequent debates have shaped the course of Indian society and politics.

GANDHI’S VIEW

• While Gandhi denounced untouchability, he did not condemn the varna system which is a social hierarchy based on occupation for most of his life.
• He believed in reforming the caste system through the abolition of untouchability and by giving equal status to each occupation.

AMBEDKAR’S VIEW

• BR Ambedkar argued that the caste system disorganised and demoralised Hindu society, reducing it to a collection of castes.
• Ambedkar completely denounced the Vedas and scriptures, believing that the caste system and untouchability were manifestations of Hindu religious scriptures.
• He first articulated caste inequality in Indian society and worked for the “annihilation of caste”, believing that anything built on caste would inevitably create inequality.

DEMAND FOR SEPARATE ELECTORATE: GANDHI vs AMBEDKAR

• Their exchanges led to the Poona Pact of 1932, which shaped the reservation system in India’s electoral politics.
• In 1930s, alongside the fight for independence, issue raised of political representation and safeguard of Dalits.
• BR Ambedkar believed that a separate electoral process for Dalits was essential to ensure their political representation and protect their interests in legislative bodies.
• Gandhi, on the other hand, was totally opposed to the idea of a separate electoral process, fearing it would perpetuate divisions among Indians.
• In 1932, the British government formalized a separate electoral process for Muslims, Sikhs and Dalits in Round Table Conference to address the issue of representation for different religious and social groups in India.
• Under the proposed process, only members from particular communities would be eligible to vote and elect a representative to legislative assemblies.
• Gandhi started fast unto death in Yerwada Central Jail in Pune to pressurise the British for abandoning the idea of separate electorates.
• A committee including Sir Tejbahadur Sapru, MR Jayakar, Madan Mohan Malviya and Mathuradas Wasanji was formed to have negotiations with Ambedkar on Gandhi’s behalf.
• Gandhi’s unrelenting fast forced Ambedkar to bend and let go of his desire to have a separate electoral process for the depressed classes.
• The Poona Pact was finally signed on September 24, 1932. Madan Mohan Malaviya signed it on behalf of Hindus and Gandhi, and Ambedkar on behalf of the depressed classes.
• Instead of separate electorates, the pact introduced the concept of reserved seats for the Dalits in provincial and central legislative bodies. These reserved seats were to be filled through a joint electorate system, where all communities would vote together.
• The Poona Pact also stipulated that in constituencies reserved for Dalits, only Dalit candidates could contest. However, in other general constituencies, Dalit voters could choose to vote for candidates of their choice from any community.

AMBEDKAR’S PERSPECTIVE ON GANDHI AFTER POONA PACT

• Shortly after the signing of the Poona Pact, Ambedkar visited Gandhi on October 17, 1932, and urged him to end his civil disobedience and join the Round Table Conference.
• After signing the Poona Pact, Ambedkar felt that the Poona Pact did not go far enough in addressing the social and economic injustices faced by the Dalits and was a compromise.
• However, the Poona Pact marked a crucial turning point in Indian politics by rejecting separate electorates and introducing the concept of reserved seats, ensuring political representation for marginalized communities, particularly Dalits.
• This agreement laid the foundation for the development of India’s reservation system, which has since been expanded to include various communities to promote social justice and equality.
• The principles of the Poona Pact were later enshrined in the Government of India Act, 1935, and the Indian Constitution, which was adopted in 1950.

THE CONCLUSION

Despite their contrasting views on the caste system, both Gandhi and Ambedkar valued each other. Both leaders were united in their commitment to social justice and equality, and this left an indelible mark on Indian society and its electoral process.

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

1. Bring out the constructive programmes of Mahatma Gandhi during the Non-Cooperation Movement and Civil Disobedience Movement. (2021)
2. Highlight the differences in the approach of Subhash Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi in the struggle for freedom. (2016)

MAINS PRACTICES QUESTIONS

1. Gandhi and Ambedkar despite their differences developed an understanding to work for the betterment of the Depressed Classes. Discuss.
2. How has Poona Pact shaped the electoral politics of the nation and laid foundation for the development of India’s social justice policies?

SOURCE: https://www.indiatoday.in/history-of-it/story/ambedkar-gandhi-caste-system-poona-pact-1932-reservation-2445208-2023-10-06

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. Recommendations of 52nd GST Council Meeting READ MORE
2. India and Saudi Arabia sign MoU in Electrical Interconnections, Green / Clean Hydrogen and Supply Chains READ MORE
3. PATA and India to jointly promote Travel for LiFE in Asia-Pacific region READ MORE  
4. Attophysics — new tools to fathom the world of electrons | Explained READ MORE
5. Significance of quantum dots in nanotechnology | Explained READ MORE
6. Ganga-Ghagra basin canals pose a threat to dolphins: study READ MORE
7. Prey, habitat dictate Asiatic wild dog-tiger coexistence, says study READ MORE
8.  Afghanistan earthquake kills 2,000: The frequent tremors the country sees READ MORE  
9. Why the RBI’s Open Market Operation plan caught the market by surprise READ MORE

Main

GS Paper- 1

1. Women farm workers need workplace safety READ MORE
2. Dalit students still face discrimination READ MORE
3. Caste-wise census: An opportunity to rectify the injustice done to the Adi Dravidas READ MORE
4. What caused the flood in Sikkim? | Explained READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Why does the State want to control universities? READ MORE
2. Women’s reservation: A law on paper, but a reality far away READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. New malaria vaccine to be a game changer READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. Why did Hamas launch a surprise attack on Israel? | Analysis READ MORE
2. Toofan Al-Aqsa jolts West Asian geostrategic architecture READ MORE
3. Regime change in the Maldives distinctly favours China READ MORE

 GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Revenue riddles: By not raising interest rates, RBI betrays its concerns about slowing growth READ MORE  
2. Building an India for manufacturers READ MORE
3. Inflation clouds growth dreams READ MORE
4. Why IBC should give bankrupting promoters a second chance READ MORE
5. Globalisation of Indian financial markets READ MORE
6. Rate decision signal of concern, uncertainty READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Why India is launching a national framework for climate services READ MORE

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

1. What turned Teesta into a killer? Here’s proof Sikkim flash floods are a man-made disaster READ MORE

INTERNAL SECURITY

1. How the Digital India Act will shape the future of the country’s cyber landscape READ MORE
2. Beefing up cybersecurity for India’s energy transition READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Gita can take you from mediocrity to perfection READ MORE
2. Why must you suffer? READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. Empowering women with the right to a safe and inclusive online environment is a crucial step toward a more equitable and just society in the digital age. Comment.
2. There is a need to redefine the relationship between the State and universities for a truly autonomous and thriving academic environment. Comment on the statement in light of recent developments.
3. While constitutional safeguards and legal protection for Dalits exist, caste-based discrimination has taken on new forms in the modern era. Discuss why the safeguards and legal protection are failed to address the issue of discrimination in higher educational institutions?

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.
• Recognising internet access as a fundamental human right, India is bound by international agreements like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
• The Adi Dravida community should seize the forthcoming caste census as an opportunity to rectify the errors made during the 1931 caste census.
• To create a world-class clean energy ecosystem in India that is safe, all stakeholders must work collectively to develop all critical components and associated cyber architecture.
• Implementation of reservation of seats for women in Parliament and State Assemblies will have to wait for the Census and a delimitation exercise.
• Since no one knows when women’s reservation will legally come into force, in the immediate future we can only monitor ticket allocation by all parties across the ideological spectrum and see who stands where.
• To keep up with the developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning, suitable vulnerability management tools and cyber-attack resilient capabilities may be co-developed with indigenous centres of excellence.
• Addressing cybercrimes requires tackling under-reporting, which currently obscures the true scale of the problem.
• Empowering women with the right to a safe and inclusive online environment is a crucial step toward a more equitable and just society in the digital age. It is time to act, bridge the gender gap, and make the internet a safer space for all.
• Dalit students face various forms of exclusion and caste-based discrimination in educational institutions across the country. While constitutional safeguards and legal protection for Dalits exist, caste-based discrimination has taken on new forms in the modern era.
• There is a need to redefine the relationship between the State and universities for a truly autonomous and thriving academic environment.
• In sync with India’s rising stock in the global economy and geopolitics, Indian financial market is about to be truly globalized.
• Measures such as collecting data, raising awareness, and creating safe spaces are needed to combat violence against women in agriculture.
• The proposed Digital India Act (DIA) encompasses several pivotal clauses that mirror the dynamic evolution of the digital environment, addressing its multifaceted challenges and opportunities.

50-WORD TALK

• Addressing cybercrimes requires tackling under-reporting, which currently obscures the true scale of the problem. Psycho-social cybercrimes pose a significant threat to women, particularly due to the gender gap in online access. These crimes thereby violate fundamental rights, including the right to privacy, freedom of speech, dignity, education, and information.
• In the face of a growing crisis of cybercrimes against women, recognising the right to internet access is imperative. It aligns with India’s democratic principles, expands on existing constitutional rights, and addresses the gender data gap. Empowering women with the right to a safe and inclusive online environment is a crucial step toward a more equitable and just society in the digital age. It is time to act, bridge the gender gap, and make the internet a safer space for all.

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.

REFERENCE TO UPSC SYLLABUS: GS 2: DIGITAL INDIA, INTERNET SHUTDOWNS, GS 3: INTERNAL SECURITY

THE CONTEXT

The internet shutdown in Manipur was reimposed on September 26, 2023.  The internet had been back in place for barely three days after the 143-day-long shutdown that began on May 3, 2023 before it was shut down again as the conflict intensified.

MORE ON THE NEWS

• There is a cycle of internet shutdowns happening in the state of Manipur as it is trapped in ethnic conflict, marked by frequent loss of life and property. It underpins a lack of confidence in the state as a recurring theme for protests in Imphal, regardless of internet access.
• Violence and brutality from Manipur reflect a deep-seated social discord and a breakdown in public trust. The term “cycle of violence,” is aptly used here. It was coined by Lenore Walker to describe situations of domestic abuse, and is no longer used in this context.
• However, it captures the toxic relationship that can develop between the state and its citizens. Those in power persist in depriving citizens of digital access to essential aspects of life, all to evade accountability. Cycles do not stop by themselves. To end, they require political leadership, not the continued use of “limited internet shutdowns” in Manipur.

WHAT IS INTERNET SHUTDOWN?

• Internet shutdowns are an absolute restriction placed on the use of internet services due to an order issued by a government body.
• It may be limited to a specific place and to specific period, time or number of days. Sometimes it can even extend indefinitely.
• An internet shutdown may be limited to mobile internet that you use on smartphones, or the wired broadband that usually connects a desktop – or both at the same time.

INTERNET SHUTDOWNS IN INDIA

• Data compiled by global digital rights group Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition reveals that India implemented at least 84 shutdowns in 2022, the highest number of shutdowns in the by any country in 2022.
• Since 2016, India has accounted for approximately 58% of all shutdowns documented in the Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project (STOP database).

REGULATION RELATED TO INTERNET SHUTDOWNS IN INDIA

• Till the year 2017, shutdowns were imposed largely under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
• However, in 2017 the law was amended and the Government promulgated the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules 2017 under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
• The 2017 Rules provide for temporary shutdown of telecom services in a region on grounds of public emergency and give senior bureaucrats from the Home Ministry at the central and state levels the power to order shutdowns.
• The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 grants the central government the power to disconnect or intercept communication services in the interest of case including:  Public safety, sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order.
• Section 69 of the IT Act allows the government to issue content-blocking orders to online intermediaries such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecom service providers, web hosting services, search engines, online marketplaces, etc. However, the Section requires the information or content being blocked to be deemed a threat to India’s national security, sovereignty, or public order.

ISSUES RELATED TO INTERNET SHUTDOWNS

• Economic impact: Internet shutdown has vast economic implication due to disruptions in communication as businesses and startups mostly rely on internet to operate.
• Suppress dissent: Internet shutdowns are tend to often used by governments to suppress dissent and limit political opposition.
• Affects day to day life: Shutdowns tend to disturb day-to-day life as online transactions, delivery and essential services came to a standstill. Students preparing for their boards, patients unable to reach their doctors and candidates struggling to commute to their job interviews were.
• Affects international reputation: India is seen as democratic nation and frequent internet shutdowns have a negative impact on India’s international reputation as a democratic nation.
• Not effective steps by regulators: As, the Department of Telecom refuses to maintain a centralised database and has proposed a Telecom Bill that retains unchecked power to implement internet shutdowns. Also, a recently concluded Telecom Regulatory Authority of India consultation ignored internet shutdown issue. Thus, institutions which serve as checks on a state government are either offering tacit support or adopting wilful ignorance towards internet shutdowns.

THE WAY FORWARD

• Need of political leadership: The Cycles of shutdowns do not stop by themselves. To end, they require political leadership, not the continued use of ‘limited internet shutdowns’ for long term solutions.
• Reforming the Legal Framework: Existing legal framework seems to be inadequate in limiting the internet shutdowns, government should repeal or amend the outdated laws.The state also needs to follow the Anuradha Bhasin judgement of the SC in letter and spirit.
• Alternative solution: There can be alternative solution by engaging civil society for peace and communication. Also, instead of complete shutdown, there can be blocking of specific content or websites.
• Action by private players: There is need of cautionary approach by private players. OTT platforms must exercise due caution and discretion when featuring the activities, beliefs, practices, or views of any racial or religious group. For example, Major telecom players like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone are advocating for service-level blocks by internet companies, a move that could not only increase compliance burdens but also risk government-dictated “essential” internet services.

THE CONCLUSION

A proportionality and necessity test analysis to determine the proper course of action are essential at this juncture. For better internet governance and government and the Indian civil society needs to push for a transparent and accountable system.

 PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

1. Has digital literacy, particularly in rural areas, coupled with lack of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility hindered socio-economic development? Examine with justification. (2021).
2. Discuss different types of cybercrimes and measures required to be taken to fight the menace. (2020).

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. India has accounted for one of the highest internet shutdowns in recent years. In this respect, discuss the laws for internet shutdown regulation and issues arising out of frequent shutdown in India.
2. Is internet shutdown provides an effective solution for maintaining public order or it is used as a tool to evade accountability? Discuss.

 SOURCE: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/apar-gupta-writes-in-manipur-another-internet-shutdown-a-conflict-intensified-8970390/

REFERENCE TO UPSC SYLLABUS: GS1: WOMEN EMPOWERMENT; GS 2: ELECTORAL RRFORMS.

THE CONTEXT

The landmark Women’s Reservation Bill now the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act that reserves one-third of the total seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies for women received presidential assent recently.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BILL

• Reservation for women: The Bill reserves, one-third of all seats for women in Lok Sabha, state legislative assemblies, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.  This will also apply to the seats reserved for SCs and STs in Lok Sabha and states legislatures.
• Commencement of reservation: The reservation will be effective after the census conducted after the commencement of this Bill has been published.   Based on the census, delimitation will be undertaken to reserve seats for women.  The reservation will be provided for a period of 15 years.  However, it shall continue till such date as determined by a law made by Parliament.
• Rotation of seats:Seats reserved for women will be rotated after each delimitation, as determined by a law made by Parliament.
• Ratification of bill: The Bill needs ratification from a minimum of 50 per cent of the states. The constitutional reasoning for requiring ratification by states is the potential impact of the Bill on the rights of states.

SIGNIFICANCE 

• Increase political representation of women: According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, India ranks 148th out of 193 countries in terms of women’s representation while the global average is 26.5 per cent. Similarly, women’s representation in state assemblies is also dismal, ranging from 3.1 per cent in Nagaland to 23.1 per cent in Bihar. The Bill aims to increase the number of women MPs to 181 from the current 82 and women MLAs to more than 2,000 from the current 740.
• Gender equality: The Bill aims to empower women and promote gender equality in society. The Bill hopes to create a conducive environment for women to voice their concerns and demand their rights. It also hopes to inspire more women to enter public life, take on leadership roles and challenge the patriarchal norms and stereotypes that limit their potential.
• Enhance governance: The Bill will improve the quality and effectiveness of governance and policymaking in India. Studies have shown that women legislators tend to be more responsive, accountable, honest, and collaborative than their male counterparts. They also tend to focus more on issues related to health, education, welfare, environment, and social justice, which are crucial for human development.

WOMEN’S RESERVATION IN PANCHAYATS

• The Bill marked a new chapter in India’s democratic journey and it comes on the 30th anniversary of the constitutional reforms that reserved one-third of seats in panchayats and municipalities for women.
• The Parliament enacted the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments that sought to make panchayats and municipalities “institutions of self-government”.
• It mandated a minimum of one-third of seats and office of chairpersons in panchayats and municipalities to be reserved for women.
• It also mandated reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Schedules Tribes (STs) based on their percentage population and enabled States to reserve seats for Backward Classes.
• This has created a system with over 3 million elected panchayat representatives, out of which almost half are women.
• While the Union government’s 2009 constitutional amendment to increase women’s reservation in local governments from 33% to 50% failed, many States have enacted laws that reserve 50% seats for women.
• Hence, presently in panchayats and municipalities, there is, at one level, vertical reservation of seats for SCs, STs, and OBCs and a horizontal category of reservation for women that applies across all categories general, SC, ST, and OBC.
• However, unlike the case of the 73rd and 74th amendments, the present law does not enable reservation for OBC women.

IMPACT OF WOMEN’S RESERVATION IN PANCHAYATS

• Strengthening democracy: With 30 years of women’s reservation in local government, it has ensured to strengthen democracy at grass root level which can be lesson for upper democracy. It led to expansion and diversification of the representative base of Indian democracy which is the most successful element of these constitutional reforms.
• Holistic address of disadvantaged section: Because of Such a mix of vertical and horizontal reservations the issue of disadvantaged section of people are recognized due to their location in the intersection of their caste and gender identities. The present women’s reservation law, adopts a similar model of intersectional reservation for women.
• Efficiency of Women leaders: Women leaders tends to be more efficient and women’s reservation in local governments yielded substantive benefits.

Differing impacts:

• More efficient: A 2004 paper by Esther Duflo and Raghabendra Chattopadhyay on panchayats in West Bengal and Rajasthan found that women leaders invest more in public goods and ensure increased women’s participation in panchayat meetings. A more expansive study in 2011 across 11 States by Ms. Duflo and others reaffirmed the finding that women-led panchayats made higher investments in public services like drinking water, education, and roads.
• Worse impact: However, a 2010 paper by Pranab Bardhan and others found that women’s reservations worsened the targeting of welfare programmes for SC/ST households and provided no improvement for female-headed households. Also, A 2020 paper by Alexander Lee and Varun Karekurve-Ramachandra examining reservations in Delhi found that constituencies reserved for women are less likely to elect OBC women and more likely to elect upper-caste women.
• Not much difference: Meanwhile, a 2008 paper by Vijayendra Rao and Radu Ban found that women leaders perform no differently than their male counterparts in south India and instead institutional factors such as the maturity of the State’s panchayat system were more relevant.

Evidently, the impact of women’s reservation is not straightforward. Since the role that women play in local governments is different from their role in Parliament, the impact of reservation may play out differently, it needs more effective studies to analyse the impacts at parliament level.

CONCERNS

• Can create division among women: The Bill will create divisions among women based on caste, religion, region, and class. Some parties have demanded that within the 33 per cent reservation for women, there should be a sub-quota for women from backward classes and minorities. Without such a provision, the Bill will benefit only upper-caste and urban women at the expense of lower-caste and rural women.
• Restrict choice of voters: Reservation of seats in Parliament restricts choice of voters to women candidates. Therefore, some experts have suggested alternate methods such as reservation in political parties and dual member constituencies.
• Issue in rotation provision of the bill: By reserving seats for women by rotation, the Bill may create instability and uncertainty in the electoral process. Rotation of reserved constituencies in every election may reduce the incentive for an MP to work for his constituency as he may be ineligible to seek re-election from that constituency.
• Issue regarding merit of legislators: Another point of criticism is that it may reduce the merit and competence of legislators. By reserving seats for women based on gender alone, the Bill may compromise the quality and efficiency of governance.
• Can repeat trend of local bodies: One of the major concern is repetition of trend of local bodies where in name of women candidate, male members (Sarpanch Patis) tends to enjoy the political privileges overshadowing women’s political rights.
• Not proper discussion and consultation: There is no such proper stakeholder consultation. However, something as vital as a constitutional amendment for women’s reservation should have been introduced after widespread discussion and analysis of its experience, instead of being introduced through a “supplementary list” in a hastily organised Parliament session.

THE WAY FORWARD

• Immediate implementation: The reservation is proposed to be implemented after a new Census is published and the delimitation exercise is completed which may take time longer than expected. In this case there is need to have immediate implementation for its effective result.
• More inclusivity: There should be sub quota for reservation of OBC as well to have inclusive political representation of women from marginalized strata of society.
• Extend reservation to Rajya Sabha: The report examining the 1996 women’s reservation Bill recommended reservation be extended to the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Councils as well to have an overall holistic growth.
• Reforms in the Electoral Process: Reforms such as introducing proportional representation and preferential voting systems can help to increase women’s representation in politics.

THE CONCLUSION

Overall, the reservation to women is a significant step forward for engendering political system.  There is need to ensure commitment of each political party towards empowerment of women within the political sphere by giving more tickets to them in the interregnum .

 PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

1. Is the National Commission for Women able to strategize and tackle the problems that women face at both public and private spheres? Give reasons in support of your answer. (2017)
2. Assess the importance of the Panchayat system in India as a part of local government. Apart from government grants, what sources the Panchayats can look out for financing developmental projects? (2018)
3. The reservation of seats for women in the institution of local self-government has had a limited impact on the patriarchal character of the Indian political process”. Comment. (2019)

 MAINS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. The Women Reservation Bill, 2023 is a new step in electoral reforms. Examine the concerns regarding its feasibility, desirability, and implications.
2. How far the Women Reservation Bill, 2023 can address the under representation of women in the Indian Political System?

 SOURCE: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/womens-quota-panchayats-to-parliament/article67381623.ece

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. PM hails landmark of 50 lakh beneficiaries of PMSVANidhi Scheme READ MORE
2.  2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Three share prize for discovery of quantum dots, now used in LEDs READ MORE  
3. National Action Plan for Green Shipping promotes eco-friendly practices: DG of Shipping READ MORE
4. U.S. keeps distance on Muizzu’s plan to end Indian military presence in Maldives READ MORE
5. New defence indigenisation list has futuristic weapons, systems READ MORE
6. In first polls post-370, Kargil hill council elections sees over 78% turnout READ MORE
7. Glacial lake outburst flood kills 14 in Sikkim, 102 people missing: What is GLOF, and why does it happen? READ MORE
8. Delhi HC passes ‘dynamic injunction’ against illegal ICC World Cup broadcast: What this means, what was the case READ MORE
9. Latest Nipah Virus Outbreak reports 33% case fatality rate, all bat samples tested negative: WHO READ MORE
10. India, Japan launch sustainability fund worth $600 million for low carbon emission projects READ MORE

Main

GS Paper- 1

1. Hugh and Colleen Gantzer write: Women’s Bill, through our travels READ MORE
2. Missing in the caste survey READ MORE
3. Economic and social reform constitute a radical agenda of eradicating caste READ MORE
4. Cause and Effect | Did an underwater volcanic eruption add to rising temperatures? READ MORE
5. Monsoon woes READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Women’s quota, panchayats to Parliament READ MORE
2. Retribution for the south, accolade for the north READ MORE
3. Drawing lines in Cauvery waters READ MORE
4. Court’s Sweeping Powers Under Article 142 Can’t Be Used to Override Substantive Law: SC READ MORE
5. Age of Consent: Law Panel Report Simply Diagnoses, Doesn’t Solve the Problem READ MORE
6. “One Nation-One Election” is vital for good governance READ MORE
7. Dynamics of women’s empowerment in Indian politics READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Making menstrual health a welfare priority: Insights from three states READ MORE
2. NEP 2020 centralises education, worsens existing maladies READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. Development partnerships for food security: India in the Indo-Pacific READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Driving mobility to a sustainable future READ MORE  
2. Advancing women’s role in India’s economic progress READ MORE
3. It is a global recession with economic growth among lowest in four decades READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Keeping tabs on carbon with an accounting system READ MORE
2. Tackle climate risk firmly to minimise economic losses READ MORE

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Let there be light: On the 2023 physics Nobel READ MORE
2. Don’t deprive scientists of funds, incentives READ MORE

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

1. As Sikkim Reels From Disastrous Floods, Concerns Over Warning Signs and Enormous Impact READ MORE

INTERNAL SECURITY

1. Mizoram National Front and the politics of cross-border kinship READ MORE
2. Why the Five Eyes remain blind to India’s security concerns READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Is mortality subjective? READ MORE
2. God and his many forms READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. ONOE would be a great help in substantially minimizing the effects of using polarisation based on socio-economic toxicity to win elections. How far do you agree with this statement? Analyse your viewpoint.
2. Discuss the issue of climate migrants. Suggest ways to address the challenges related to climate migration.
3. By collaborating with neighbouring countries, India can serve as a catalyst for positive change and promote food security and sustainable development in the Indo-Pacific. Comment.
4. India’s female workforce participation remains paltry and calls for an urgent review of India’s policies and schemes related to women’s empowerment. Argue.
5. While legislative representation is a critical aspect, it must be complemented by measures that empower women at the grassroots level. Comment on the statement in the light of the recent Women’s Reservation Act

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• Don’t hit at all if it is honourably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!
• ONOE would be a great help in substantially minimizing the effects of using polarisation based on socio-economic toxicity to win elections.
• An election should mark the celebration of a vibrant democracy. It should not degenerate into an exercise maximising polarisation based on socio-economic toxicity. ONOE would be a great help in substantially minimising this adverse impact.
• Being a multilateral forum of international economic cooperation, the G20 can serve as a suitable platform for creating a dedicated fund for climate migrants.
• By collaborating with neighbouring countries, India can serve as a catalyst for positive change and promote food security and sustainable development in the Indo-Pacific.
• India’s female workforce participation remains paltry and calls for an urgent review of India’s policies and schemes related to women’s empowerment.
• While legislative representation is a critical aspect, it must be complemented by measures that empower women at the grassroots level.
• Achieving gender equity and true empowerment requires a deeper understanding of the complexities involved and a commitment to addressing them effectively.
• True empowerment necessitates a sociopolitical transformation at the grassroots level, characterised by women’s access to education, equal opportunities, economic independence, and, most importantly, political independence.
• Consent is pivotal as it respects individual autonomy, fosters safety, maintains ethical standards, and promotes healthy, respectful relationships.
• A good plan of action is being implemented by the Integrated Development Project implemented by the Himachal Forest Department with the assistance of the World Bank. It seeks to improve upstream water management and water productivity of selected gram panchayats.
• Resolution of dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu can pave the way for addressing interstate river water conflicts.
• The five southern States have effectively controlled their population and should not be penalised through reduced political representation.

ESSAY TOPIC

• India to awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened
• What we sow we reap.

50-WORD TALK

• Canada should have first pursued private diplomatic talks with New Delhi before it decided to go to parliament with Nijjar killing allegations and collect a mohalla-style panchayat of its global allies. The onus of privileging its domestic politics over diplomacy is on Ottawa. Justin Trudeau can’t have it both ways.
• The journey to gender equality in India’s workforce is long and challenging. Yet, the potential benefits of women’s economic empowerment are enormous and transformative, both for women and society. Our collective responsibility is to ensure that the women workforce in India gets their due.
• India can serve as a catalyst for positive change, promoting food security and sustainable development in the Indo-Pacific for the benefit of the entire region. Regional cooperation, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration among nations in the region are vital for developing and implementing effective strategies to overcome these challenges.

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.

REFERENCE TO UPSC SYLLABUS: GS 1: SOCIETY: POPULATION RELATED ISSUES; SIGNIFICANCE OF MIGRATION, CHALLENGES TO MIGRATION

CONTEXT: With rapid industrialisation, there has been a huge flow of migrants from rural areas to urban cities. In India, internal migration, which is migration within a particular country or State, has almost always been circular.

WHAT IS CIRCULAR MIGRATION?

• • Circular migration is a repetitive form of migration wherein people move to another place i.e the destination country and back i.e country of origin according to the availability of employment.
  • This effectively means that instead of migrating permanently or temporarily to another location, people move to different locations for a brief period of time when work is available.
  • It is a phenomenon mostly seen among low-income groups who migrate to avail of seasonally available jobs in another country, city, place etc.
  • As per the report on measuring circular migration by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Task Force, one is called a circular migrant if one have completed at least ‘two loops’ between two countries. This means one have travelled between your destination and origin country at least two times.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CIRCULAR MIGRATION

According to Philippe Fargues, migration can be defined as circular if it meets the following criteria:

1. 1. 1. There is a temporary residence in the destination location
      2. There is the possibility of multiple entries into the destination country
      3. There is freedom of movement between the country of origin and the country of destination during the period of residence
      4. There is a legal right to stay in the destination country
      5. There is protection of migrants’ rights
      6. There is a healthy demand for temporary labour in the destination country.

CIRCULAR MIGRATION WITHIN INDIA

• • In India, internal migration, which is migration within a particular country or State, has almost always been circular with the advent of jobs in the manufacturing, construction and services sector.
  • However, only recently has the phenomenon been given its due as the seasonal movement of migrants was not properly documented or was boxed along with short-term or temporary migration.
  • In India, the uneven development post-liberalisation, has led to a lot of inter-State migration, with States like West Bengal, Odisha and Bihar having some of the highest rates of out-migration. Initially, while most of the migration was to Delhi, nowadays it has increased to southern States as well.
  • According to a study, most of the rural migrants were occupied in agricultural jobs in their origin States and when they migrated a majority of them were engaged in low-skill jobs.

REASONS BEHIND CIRCULAR MIGRATION

• • Advent of globalization: Circular migration became quite popular in the 60s and 70s with the advent of globalisation and development.
  • Access to modern communication: Increased access to modern forms of transport and communication, social networks and the growth of multinational corporations have aided the advent of circular migration.

POSITIVES OF CIRCULAR MIGRATION

• • Balancing act: Circular migration is now seen as the best way forward, as needs of development and individual economic advancement can be balanced out. It is also seen as a balanced migration method which looks at migration not only from the point of view of the receiving country but also of the sending nation.

1. 1. 1. For the country of origin, migration, especially international migration, is beneficial due to the flow of remittances which will boost and aid the domestic economy. The flow of foreign capital will enhance the economy ensuring more infrastructure, more jobs and by association, a better standard of living.
      2. From the perspective of the host countries, especially those of the West, a lesser population and a higher access to education has resulted in a large dearth of low-income low-skill jobs which migrants have been able to fill.

• • Rises standard of living: The positive outcomes of such migration rises standards of living of migrants which include increased access to higher paying jobs when compared to origin States, better household welfare due to remittances, ease of mobility etc.
  • More autonomy to women: Some reports have even stated how women get more autonomy and decision-making power in the family due to the absence of men who migrate.

ISSUES WITH CIRCULAR MIGRATION

• • Framing public policy: With the increasing fluid movement of people, framing policy around migration is one of the biggest challenges for policymakers as it needs to address complex challenges.
  • Brain drain: Migration of citizen from origin to host country creates brain drain for their origin countries where most talented people of origin country use their intellect and innovation for the advancement of another country.
  • Reduced opportunity for natives: There is a concern of reduced opportunity for natives in host countries and increased competition between citizens.
  • Job uncertainty: There is also a certain risks associated with circular migration as jobs related are seasonal and often irregular. There are also issues of migrant to work in unhygienic and unsafe conditions and are routinely exploited.
  • Cultural conflicts: The influx of migrants have caused a wide range of anxieties and cultural conflicts in the host populations with most of them now calling for restrictions and outright ban on migration.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• • Bilateral agreements with host countries: For protection of migrant workers in other counties there is need to ensure bilateral agreements with countries like UAE, USA where most of our countrymen in order to ensure their welfare and security.
  • Digitisation: There is need for digitization of migrant workers data for better management and ensure access to basic resources through government initiative like One nation One card.
  • Government initiative: Both Central Government and host and origin government need to take stringent action to address the issue. Though, Central government have enacted Inter-State Migrant Workmen act, 1979 and Code on Social security to regulate safety and employment of migrant workers. Also, some States like Kerala have announced health insurance schemes for migrant workers as Awaz Health scheme but there is need of more effort to ensure migrants rights.
  • Beneficial for both countries: Circular migration can bring the tendency of frequent movement where negative effects of brain drain will reduce and a sort of brain circulation will be encouraged. Here, the individual can use his talents in both countries and still contribute to remittances.
  • Using migration for development: There is need for effective management of migration to maximize the development impact of migration for all.
  • Cultural unification: Migration leads to intermixing of people from diverse cultures. It can be used for positive contributions such as the evolution of composite culture and breaking of the narrow mentality of the people at large.

THE CONCLUSION: Circular migrants remain at the margins of physical, social, cultural, and political spaces in both areas whether rural or urban. It is high time that States start actively formulating policy to understand the extent of circular migration and address the issue of migrants proactively.

SOURCE: https://www.thehindu.com/specials/text-and-context/circular-migration-looking-at-both-sides-of-the-debate/article67377466.ece

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

1. 1. 1. What are the main socio-economic implications arising out of the development of IT industries in major cities of India? (2021)
      2. Discuss the changes in the trends of labour migration within and outside India in the last four decades. (2015)

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. 1. 1. What is circular migration and how is it different from other forms of migration? Explain its reasons with context of trends seen in India.
      2. With rapid industrialisation, there has been a huge trend of circular migration. Discuss the positive and negative aspects of circulation migration.

THE CONTEXT: The government of India has been collecting a myriad of data from various sources and using them for multiple purposes. But hardly these data are shared with the citizens or placed in the public domain. It is also seen that many critical data have not been either published or delayed. This creates a digital divide between the state and the citizenry having implications for governance, privacy, and accountability. This article analyses these issues in detail.

HOW IS THE DATA BEING COLLECTED BY THE GOVERNMENT?

The government collects the data of citizens through various mechanisms that it uses for multiple purposes. The Census, the sample surveys by the NSS, the expenditure surveys, the survey on industries, family, labour, etc., are some ubiquitous instruments for data collection. The govt also collects regular administrative data while providing services to the citizens like licensing, permits, provision of records, etc. Since 2014, the UIDAI and Aadhaar systems have been expanded in scope, and the government is able to collect the biometric and demographic data of people on a large scale. However, there are many grey areas in this whole process having implications for democracy itself.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EFFICIENT DATA MANAGEMENT?

EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY MAKING:

• In government, the most traditional use of data analysis has been the statistical analysis of data collected through various surveys, Census, indices, etc.
• In the traditional methodology, the insights generated from the analysis of the available data were provided to government authorities for effective policy formulation or planning of new programmes, and schemes as well as preparation of the budget for the government.
• For instance, data is at the core of many flagship programmes such as Swachh Bharat Mission, Housing for all, One Nation One Ration Card, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, and Fertilizers Distribution, to name a few.

INFORMED DECISIONS BY STAKEHOLDERS:

• The data on various sectors of the economy like employment, consumption expenditure, investment, etc. is crucial for business groups and investors to make informed decisions.

DRIVER OF DIGITAL ECONOMY:

• In this 21st century of Digital Transformation, data is the new oil; data is the new fuel, and data is the oxygen that holds immense untapped potential in it.
• Over a period, data has emerged as an important asset for the development of any country and is also the driver for a digital economy.
  

TARGETED APPROACH TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:

• The prowess of data influences almost every sector of the socio-economic development of our country.
• For instance, data can prove to be highly useful for the formulation of poverty alleviation schemes and subsidy distribution schemes.
• Various schemes of the government, such as the MGNREGA, Pensions Scheme, Farmers Subsidy, Benefits for unorganized labour, Scholarships, etc. can make use of data analytics to identify the right beneficiary, understand their socio-economic status, and use technology solutions for timely dissemination of benefits, etc

APPLICATION IN DIVERSE FIELDS:

• Fields like Criminal Justice and Judiciary can consume data to analyze crime patterns, locate the criminal networks and hotspots of potential crimes, etc.
• This would help the authorities take corrective measures and prevent such incidents from happening.
• Data is precious in fraud prevention also.
• Many financial systems today employ data to detect fraudulent activities, and it is now suggested to integrate a fraud detection module while setting up any financial system.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND COVID-19 PANDEMIC:

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, data has been extensively used for contact tracing, prediction of hotspots, trend analysis, and taking appropriate measures to curb the spread of the virus.
• Data was also used for the management of hospitals and the supply of essential medicines and essential goods to citizens at large.

DATA AND DEMOCRACY:

• Access to the data by citizens is critical for a healthy and informed public discourse on issues of policy relevance.
• The mere fact that people have access to data is likely to pressurize the government to improve performance in many areas.
• However, data generation doesn’t guarantee seamless access to people whose lives matter most in a democracy.
• Informed public discourse in any democracy is critical for accountable and transparent governance.

OPEN GOVERNMENT DATA (OGD) PLATFORM INDIA – AN OVERVIEW

WHAT IS IT?:

• The Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India (https://data.gov.in) has been set up by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in compliance with the Open Data Policy (NDSAP) of India.
• The objective of the policy is to provide proactive access to government-owned shareable data along with its usage information in open/machine-readable format through a wide area of the network across the country.
• This data,  periodically updated, will be shared within the framework of various related policies, rules, and acts of the government.

PART OF DIGITAL INDIA:

• Developed using Open Source Stack, the project is one of the initiatives under Pillar 6 (Information for All) of the Digital India initiative.
• It facilitates community participation for further development of the product with Visualizations, Alerts, etc.
• It has an easy-to-use and user-friendly interface with dynamic/pull-down menus, search-based reports, secured web access, a bulletin board, etc.

EFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT AND CITIZEN COLLABORATION:

• The platform reflects how the innovative use of information technology has led to a paradigm shift in accommodating the huge data potential of the country.
• The platform has a rich mechanism for citizen engagement, which could help Ministries/Departments/Organizations prioritize the release of Government Datasets.
• Besides enabling citizens to express their need for specific datasets or apps, it also allows them to rate the quality of datasets and seek clarification or information from nodal officers of participating government entities.

THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE OGD PLATFORM

• Ministry/Department/State contributes/publishes resources in open format either directly or by Web Services through workflow-based Data Management System.
• Provides single window access to the datasets and apps published by different Ministries/Departments/Organizations/States in open format. –
• Suggestions and requirements of data can be submitted by citizens/ community to help prioritize data sharing by participating ministries/ departments. Anyone can endorse already submitted suggestions.
• People can directly write to Chief Data Officer seeking any further clarification/information on the released resources or related requirements.
• The platform enables better discovery and usage of Government datasets through visualizations and development of apps, mash-ups, etc. Visualization Platform with the facility to create maps as well as different chart options like radar, bar, line, area, pie, column, etc.
• A separate Community portal (http://community.data.gov.in) has been launched to provide a common platform for knowledge sharing through discussion and contribution through Blogs, Infographics, Visualizations, etc., using data available on the platform.
• People can rate the resources (datasets/apps) on three aspects i.e. Quality, Accessibility, and Usability on a scale of 5.
• A separate Event portal for management of workshops, hackathons, challenges, etc. has been created.

THE LIMITATIONS OF THE NDSAP AND OGD

• A large volume of existing government data is still not accessible in digital formats. NDASP is still a policy but not a mandatory policy. As a result, a lot of departments are reluctant or slow to share their respective datasets.
• ​Even when data is made available in a machine-readable format, in most cases, the reliability is questionable; the raw data needs to go through rigorous editing and aggregation before it can be used.
• Different departments collect and collate information in their respective silos using diverse formats and terminology, making it tough to use that data effectively.
• Adoption of data sharing at the state level has also been slow, with only four out of 29 Indian states contributing data to the national portal.
• The granularity of open government data in India has been a concern, as it fails to satisfy the users to access and use only micro-level data.
• The unavailability of official map data due to the conservative map policy of the government and lack of interoperability in sharing this data has discouraged a discourse about better planning, tracking progress in the ‘real space’ and pushing the government to take remedial steps.

DATA PRODUCTION AND GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE-AN ILLUSTRATION

CONSUMPTION SURVEY AND PERIODIC LABOUR FORCE SURVEY:

• The data produced by the government’s statistical wings, which have a reputation for being independent and credible, can be used to assess the effectiveness of state policies.
• Recent events, however, have severely harmed this perception. Data from the 2017-18 consumption survey, for example, has yet to be released.
• The survey’s leaked summary results reveal some troubling facts that may not be politically reassuring to the government.
• Similarly, the first Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS 2017-18) was not made public until after the 2019 general election.

REPLACING THE ANNUAL SURVEY OF INDUSTRIES:

• Furthermore, rather than relying on the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), a systematically designed survey for estimating industrial sector GDP, the government has begun to rely on self-reported, unverified data submitted to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs since 2011 obscuring the true state of Indian industry.
• The future of this database is uncertain now that ASI is nearly obsolete for official estimation purposes.
• To date, the ASI is the most dependable and comprehensive source of data for research on industrial productivity and regional patterns.

DATA ON SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAN MISSION:

• Another example of undermining the scientific database is the delay in the release of Water and Sanitation Survey data 2018.
• The prime minister declared India open defecation free in October 2019, while the data was released much later, depriving people of an opportunity to assess the status of the Swachh Bharat mission in a scientific manner.

RESIGNATION OF OFFICIALS:

• The autonomy of statistical agencies is compromised for immediate political gains at the cost of sustainability and the quality of democratic governance.
• This is seen in the manner of restructuring the NSO and the resignation of top non-official members from the National Statistical Commission.

OTHERS:

• The government’s refusal to conduct a  caste census, a migrant survey, poverty enumeration, controversy over the death count during the pandemic, etc are some other instances that reflect very poorly on the state of the Indian data ecosystem.

DATA AND DEMOCRACY-AN ANALYSIS

Democracy is the government by consent, and this consent requires reliable and authentic information that enables the citizens to make an informed choice at the ballot box. Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of a functioning democracy and the elections cannot be held to be free or fair if the citizens are deprived of real and real-time data on the government, political parties, and the administration, among others. Democracy is also a form of accountable government, and accountability demands access to what the government is doing and how it is doing it. This is necessary for ensuring answerability and the rule of law. In fact, in a democracy citizens are the masters and the government, the servant, and philosophically put, the master has the full right to know what the servant is doing or not doing. This is the spirit in which the freedom of information legislations are being brought by nations. Additionally, the notion of privacy has assumed huge significance, which is being expanded by progressive jurisprudence like India’s Puttaswamy judgment. It is also true that the government should have some elbow room to maneuver with respect to the collection and keeping of sensitive data dealing with national security. But, in other cases, the policy of the government should be based on open data access which will have inherent and instrumental benefits for democracy.

THE POWER OF DATA- THE NEWZEALAND CASE STUDY

The key to the New Zealand government’s success is that it treats data as a strategic asset committed to igniting proactive information sharing to drive better decision-making.

A great example is how accurate diabetes data has helped the New Zealand Ministry of Health provide appropriate and timely care. New Zealand’s Ministry of Health found it difficult to accurately estimate the number of cases in the country since there was no consistent data collection across all general practices and hospitals. With the help of data analysis capabilities, the ministry created a register to accurately predict the prevalence of the condition and help design effective public health policies to support quality clinical improvements.

The New Zealand Ministry of Health was able to integrate information from six different data sources and use Advanced Analytics to identify both those with diabetes and those with the highest prevalence rate. These insights enabled the Ministry of Health to focus its policies on the health policies for these groups.

The exceptional work done by the New Zealand government is being copied around the globe as governments everywhere are looking to provide similar results to their citizens. In fact, the Ontario Government has pledged its “commitment to the people of Ontario to engage, collaborate and

innovate” as it looks to build a “government that freely shares information, unlocks the power of data in a digital age, and brings more voices to the decision-making table through its Open Ontario initiative.

As the New Zealand government has demonstrated, analytics can help save money, drive efficiency, and improve citizen services, all while protecting sensitive data. The possibilities are truly endless; however, the power of analytics can only be unleashed once governments realize the importance of information sharing to enrich the lives of citizens and transform the way the government is run. And that starts with breaking down the culture of data ownership and building a proper infrastructure to securely manage data as an asset.

THE WAY FORWARD

• The government needs to ensure the independence of the statistical agencies and also should timely conduct and release the crucial data even though the results may not be politically palatable.
• The Open Data Policy needs to be implemented in letter and spirit for good governance and participative democracy.
• There must be a comprehensive data protection law in place to protect citizens’ privacy and to prevent India from being slid into a surveillance state.
• RTI is one of the best tools for distributing and sharing data the government has, and the governments should suo motu put these data in the public domain.
• Lack of access to data can increase the distance between the governors and the government, which will have serious consequences on the outcomes of policies and can hamper developmental objectives.
• Various researches also suggest that much of the data is still not analyzed and has huge untapped potential. One of the major challenges right now is the fact that data is currently residing in silos, and thus to unleash the true potential of this data, various IT systems must collaborate and operate in a symbiotic fashion.
• There are certain challenges that are currently preventing these opportunities from being tapped. Issues of privacy and data anonymization are a concern. There is also a lack of standardization of data collection formats that makes it difficult to aggregate and make sense of data The infrastructure to support efficient data collection, processing, and management needs to be strengthened.
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), on February 21, 2022, released a policy proposal titled “Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy, 2022”. The policy aims to “radically transform India’s ability to harness public sector data and aim to sell it to the private sector. This can be the beginning of sharing government-owned citizens’ data with relevant stakeholders. Although the market mechanism may be questionable, so is privacy concerns.

THE CONCLUSION: Data is emerging as the key resource of a Digital Economy. Citizens, organizations, and society at large will benefit from the democratization of data as it will become usable to anyone to derive insights and build inclusive solutions for the development of our society. However, the government, while harvesting the citizens’ data for better governance, should not monopolize it and must share them with people, which will improve democratic outcomes in the true sense.

QUESTIONS:

1. Data is the lifeblood of a democratic government. Comment
2. What is an Open Government Data Platform? How far do you agree with the view that democratizing data ownership will help in improving governance outcomes?
3. Critically analyse the relationship between data and democracy.

THE CONTEXT: The Ministry of Earth Science unveiled India’s Arctic Policy on 17 March 2022, titled “India and the Arctic: building a partnership for sustainable development”, with the aim of enhancing the country’s cooperation with the resource-rich and rapidly transforming region. The policy also seeks to combat climate change and protect the environment in the region, which is warming three times faster than the rest of the world. This article explains the need for an Arctic Policy for India, looks into the gaps in India’s present engagement in the Arctic, and analyses the features of India’s Arctic Policy released recently.

WHAT AND WHERE IS THE ARCTIC?

• It is commonly understood to refer to the region above the Arctic Circle, north of latitude 66° 34′ N, which includes the Arctic Ocean with the North Pole at its centre.
• The Arctic is a vast and varied region whose annual cycle is influenced by the strong variation in the amount of light. The further north you are, the more there are daylight hours in winter and nightless nights in summer. In the Arctic, winters are long, and the growing season is short. The Arctic land area comprises only about 5% of the land surface of Earth.
• The Arctic is home to almost four million inhabitants, of which approximately one-tenth are considered indigenous people.
• The Arctic Ocean and its surrounding landmass have been a topic of immense interest and a high-priority area of research among the global scientific fraternity, as well as of importance to policymakers.
• The Arctic influences the atmospheric, oceanographic and bio-geo-chemical cycles of the Earth’s ecosystem.

WHAT IS ARCTIC COUNCIL?

• The Arctic Council is the leading intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, Arctic Indigenous peoples and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues, in particular on issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic. It was formally established in 1996.
• It is not a treaty-based international legal entity like the UN organizations 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 organizations representing the indigenous people of the Arctic region have also been given the status of permanent participants.
• India holds one of the 13 positions as the Observer in the Arctic Council.

What is the observer status of the Council?

• The observer status is provided to countries or entities that support the objectives of the Arctic Council through financial or other contributions.
• Observers cannot participate in the decision-making process.
• They are invited to participate only in the meetings of the Council, particularly at the level of the working groups.
• The renewal of the observer status is just a formality. The status, once given, continues until the entity carries out any activities that run against the objectives of the Council.

INDIA’S JOURNEY AT THE ARCTIC COUNCIL

1920: India’s engagement with the Arctic began when it signed the Svalbard Treaty in Paris between Norway, the US, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Ireland, and the British overseas Dominions and Sweden concerning Spitsbergen.

2007: India initiated its Arctic research program in 2007 with a focus on climate change in the region.

2008: India established Himadri- India’s first permanent Arctic research station located at Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway.

2013: India was first granted the Observer status in 2013, along with five other nations.

2014: India deployed IndARC it is India’s first underwater moored observatory in the Arctic region 2014 at Kongsfjorden fjord, Svalbard, Norway. Its research goal is to study the Arctic climate and its influence on the monsoon.

2016: Another atmospheric laboratory was established in 2016 at Gruvebadet in Ny-Alesund with the aim of initiating studies on clouds, precipitation, long-range pollutants, and other background atmospheric parameters.

2019: India was re-elected as an Observer to the Arctic Council.

ABOUT: INDIA’S ARCTIC POLICY

India’s Arctic Policy aims to enhance the country’s cooperation with the resource-rich and rapidly transforming Arctic region. The policy also seeks to combat climate change and protect the environment in the region, which is warming three times faster than the rest of the world. It was released by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

OBJECTIVES OF INDIA’S ARCTIC POLICY

• It aims to strengthen national capabilities and competencies in science and exploration, climate and environmental protection, and maritime and economic cooperation with the Arctic region.
• To strengthen institutional and human resource capacities within the government and academic, research and business institutions through inter-ministerial coordination in pursuit of India’s interests in the Arctic.
• To enhance understanding of the impact of climate change in the Arctic region on India’s climate, economic, and energy security.
• To promote better analysis, prediction, and coordinated policymaking on the implications of ice melting in the Arctic on India’s economic, military and strategic interests related to global shipping routes, energy security, and exploitation of mineral wealth.
• To study the linkages between polar regions and the Himalayas and deepen the cooperation between India and the countries of the Arctic region under various Arctic forums, drawing expertise from scientific and traditional knowledge.
• To increase India’s participation in the Arctic Council and improve understanding of the complex governance structures in the Arctic, relevant international laws, and geopolitics of the region.

RELEVANCE OF ARCTIC POLICY FOR INDIA?

The relevance of the Arctic for India can be broadly explained under three categories:

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Under the banner of science and research, the Indian government hopes to build its research capabilities in the region by strengthening existing facilities, such as the Himadri Arctic station in Svalbard.
• It also hopes to align Indian research with international Arctic priorities. The policy further lays down plans to deploy space technology to better study the Arctic region.
  

 ECONOMIC AND HUMAN RESOURCES:

• The Arctic region has rich deposits of coal, gypsum and diamonds and also substantial reserves of zinc, lead, placer gold and quartz. Greenland alone possesses about a quarter of the world’s rare earth reserves.
• The Arctic contains a wealth of hydrocarbon resources.
• Arctic also has the potential to address India’s energy security needs and deficiency of strategic and rare earth minerals.

GEOPOLITICAL AND STRATEGIC:

• The Arctic region is significant due to the shipping routes that run through it.
• According to an analysis published by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, the adverse effects of the Arctic are not just impacting the availability of mineral and hydrocarbon resources but also transforming global shipping routes.
• According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India can play a constructive role in securing a stable Arctic.
• The region holds immense geopolitical importance as the Arctic is projected to be ice-free by 2050, and world powers are making a beeline to exploit the region rich in natural resources.

GAP IN INDIA’S APPROACH

LACK OF AN ARTICULATED POLICY: 

• Even though the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the Government of India has listed India’s interests in the Arctic to be “scientific, environmental, commercial as well as strategic”, till recently, India was one among the four of the 13 Observer nations of the Arctic Council that did not have a nationally articulated Arctic Policy.

SCIENTIFIC ORIENTATION:

• India needs to go beyond the purely scientific approach in the Arctic. In keeping with its growing stature and consequent say in world affairs, India ought to be better equipped to understand the dynamics of the Arctic geo-politics and governance.

INADEQUATE FUNDING:

• Presently, India’s polar research for the Antarctic, Arctic, Southern Ocean and Himalayas is budgeted under the umbrella Polar Science and Cryosphere (PACER) programme of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). Considering that India’s Antarctic Programme is about five times bigger than its Arctic programme.

POLAR RESEARCH VESSEL (PRV):

• The lack of a dedicated PRV is considered to be a serious impediment to the growth of India’s polar activities.

WHOLE-OF-GOVERNMENT FOCUS:

• Presently, the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), under the MoES, is the nodal agency for India’s polar research programme, which includes Arctic studies.
• The MEA provides the external interface to the Arctic Council through the United Nations Economic & Social (UNES) Division.
• However, the eight countries of the Arctic Council are divided between the Americas, Eurasia and Central Europe Divisions, possibly preventing a region-wide focus on the fast-changing geophysical and geopolitical Arctic landscape.
• Further, there is no nodal body to coordinate all the activities of the Government of India relating to the Arctic region.

AWARENESS AND CAPACITY:

• The Arctic has largely been ignored in India on the ground that it is far away and does not have a direct impact on India. This has resulted in a lack of national capacity on Arctic issues.
• As the Arctic opens up, India needs to expand domestic capability and capacity by building a wide-ranging institutional base on Arctic maritime, legal, environmental, social, policy and governance issues.
• This can only happen through the introduction of an Arctic-related curriculum in our education system at all levels. India’s engagement with the Arctic needs to be built on sound augmentation of its domestic capacity.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• Expand the capacity and awareness of Arctic-related scientific research by strengthening the NCPOR, involving other relevant academic and scientific institutions in India, identifying nodal institutes and promoting partnerships among institutions and agencies.
• Promote research capacities in Indian Universities in the fields of earth sciences, biological sciences, geosciences, climate change and space-related programmes relevant to the Arctic.
• Widen the pool of experts in sectors such as mineral, oil and gas exploration, blue-bio economy and tourism relevant to the Arctic.
• Strengthen training institutions for training seafarers in Polar/Ice-Navigation and build region-specific hydrographic capacity and skills necessary to undertake Arctic transits.
• Build indigenous capacity in building ships of Ice-class standards, including for research.
• Expand India’s trained manpower in maritime insurance, chartering, arbitration and brokerage for potential usage in the Arctic region.
• Build wide-ranging institutional capacity for the study of Arctic maritime, legal, environmental, social, policy and governance issues, including the application of UNCLOS and other Treaties governing the Arctic region.

THE CONCLUSION: India’s Arctic Policy is aimed to prepare the country for a future where the biggest challenges facing humankind, such as climate change, can be successfully addressed through, Collective will and effort. India can and is ready to play its part and contribute to the global good. Close partnership with countries of the Arctic region and other international partners to ensure sustainable development, peace and stability in the Arctic region will also be essential for the realization of India’s national development plans and priorities. This approach is in accordance with the challenges facing humankind, such as climate change, which can be successfully addressed only through the Indian philosophy of VasudhaivaKutumbakam-The world is one family.

 Questions for Mains:

1. India’s Arctic Policy is aimed to prepare the country for a future where the biggest challenge of climate change. Comment.
2. In the changing geopolitics, initiatives such as New Arctic Policy can be vital to address the emerging energy challenges experienced by India in the recent past. Explain.
3. How far do you agree with this view that India’s New Arctic is less about energy needs and more about being competitive in geopolitics? Justify your view.

THE CONTEXT: The Russian-Ukraine war has disrupted the prevailing global order. The war is threatening to divide the world into two blocs reminiscent of the cold war. However, India committed to its principled position of non-alignment, with its huge demography and economy can be the fulcrum of shaping the post-war world order. This article examines the challenges the country faces and the strengths it carries to be the pivot of this new world order.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTING WORLD ORDER

THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL: Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a model of free societies, frictionless borders, and an open economy has emerged as the standard in many countries, which has become a governing order.

FREE TRADE AND PROSPERITY: People, products, services, and capital were able to move more freely around the world as a result of this. During this time, global trade and per capita GDP nearly doubled, signalling a period of universal peace and prosperity.

INTEGRATION AND PEACE: With the goal of shared global prosperity, the world’s societies and economics have become increasingly interconnected. The conventional belief was that such close interdependence among nations would lead to fewer conflicts and promote peace.

IDEA OF GLOBAL VILLAGE: ‘Global Village’ of around 8 billion inhabitants of the world was established on top of modern transportation networks, with the US dollar serving as the reserve currency and integrated payment systems around it.

HOW IS THE GLOBAL ORDER CHANGING?

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is a global geo-economic conflict that threatens to go back to the Cold War era of two dominant power blocs. The Russo-Sino bloc is the producer powerhouse while the Western bloc is a large consumer and hence the conflict between them harms both the blocs significantly. If interconnection and trade between states are mutually beneficial, then its disruption and blockade will be mutually destructive. Economic sanctions enacted in retaliation for Russian actions have harmed all nations, albeit some have suffered more than others. Egyptians are facing food shortages as a result of their reliance on Russian and Ukrainian wheat, Germans face high winter heating costs as a result of their reliance on Russian gas, and Americans face a shortage of electric cars due to the unavailability of car batteries reliant on Russian nickel, Sri Lankans have taken to the streets as a result of economic woes, and Indian farmers face high fertilizer prices triggered by a global shortage.

CAN INDIA BE THE EPICENTRE OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER?

THE CHALLENGES:

• A forced and hurried dismantling of the international dollar-based currency order and replacing it with bilateral local currency arrangements are problematic.
• Buying discounted oil or commodities if it entails a departure from the established order of dollar-based trade settlement or jeopardizes established trading relationships with western bloc markets, can have longer-term implications for India’s export potential.
• India needs not just cordial relationships with nations on either side of the new divide but also a stable and established global economic environment.
• Social harmony is the edifice of economic prosperity. Fanning mutual distrust, hate and anger among citizens, causing social disharmony is a huge challenge to India.
• The communal divide that the country is facing today will affect the growth prospect of the country.

THE OPPORTUNITIES:

• India has benefited enormously from being an active participant in this interconnected world, with a tripling of trade (as a share of GDP) in the last three decades and providing vast numbers of jobs.
• Trade with other nations will always be an integral cornerstone of India’s economic future.
• India’s trade is dependent on both these power blocs and on the current global economic structures of free trade, established reserve currency and transaction systems.
• As the western bloc of nations looks to reduce dependence on the Russia-China bloc of nations, it presents newer avenues for India to expand trade.
• India, as the largest peace-loving democracy, stands to gain enormously from the ‘principled trade’ aspiration of the western bloc that values both morals and money.
• It presents a tremendous opportunity for India to become a large producing nation for the world and a global economic powerhouse.
• By dint of its sheer size and scale, India can be both a large producer and a consumer.

HOW DID INDIA RESPOND TO THE CRISIS?

EMPHASIZED DIALOGUE AND DIPLOMACY: 

• Right from the beginning, India called for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the dispute. On many occasions, the country has asked for the immediate cessation of violence and hostilities.

PROTECTED NATIONAL INTEREST:

• Russia is a very important partner in a variety of areas for India; similarly, fertilizer prices have a direct implication on the livelihood of a majority of our population and food prices.
• Even the security of the nation is at stake as India maintains its defence posture in the manner that the current security challenges warrant.
• All these are legitimate pursuits of national interest by India.

DESISTED FROM TAKING SIDES:

• While India was at the forefront of addressing the fallout of the war, it has been careful not to take sides despite the push by the West owing to its peculiar circumstances. This has been manifested in India’s abstention in the resolutions in UNGA, UNSC, UNHRC etc.

PROVIDING HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE:

• India has sent humanitarian assistance to Ukraine through Poland and Romania. The consignment comprised medicines, medical equipment, and other relief material.

INFLATION, LOW GROWTH AND EXPORT POTENTIAL

New Delhi is already bearing the brunt of high global crude oil prices (about $110-120 a barrel as against $70 at the beginning of November) as well as rising mineral, metal and edible oil prices, indicating a possible scenario of high inflation and low growth — stagflation. Ukraine has created an unlikely opportunity for select Indian Agri-exporters who trade in wheat, maize, millet, and processed food. Since the crisis unfolded last month, the world has been looking to Indian wheat to fill the huge void in stocks caused by the turbulence in Europe’s breadbasket. Ukraine is one of the world’s top wheat exporters, and Russia and Ukraine together have a 25% share in the global wheat market.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• India thus needs not just a nonaligned doctrine for the new world order but also a nondisruptive geo-economic policy that seeks to maintain the current global economic equilibrium.
• India needs to balance domestic compulsions with its international commitments without being pulled into any bloc.
• India needs to address the domestic problems of social divisions and economic boycotts, and issues of freedom to trade.
• India needs to arrest the slide in democracy being felt in multiple areas lest its credentials will be impacted.
• A new paradigm of emerging global order and India’s role in shaping it need a clear articulation of the contours of “Atmanirbhar Bharat.”

THE CONCLUSION: The reshaping and readjustment of world order will be a unique opportunity for India to reassess foreign policy, economic policy and geopolitical strategy and develop a mantle of global leadership. The strengthening of India’s global economic power through a cautious post-conflict geoeconomics strategy between Russia and Ukraine could represent a decisive turning point in India’s economic history. India could be the cornerstone of this new world order as a peaceful democracy with economic prosperity. But this requires India to first contain the division of the raging community within the country.

QUESTIONS:

1. “To be the fulcrum of the new paradigm of the world order, India needs to address its domestic social divisions “Explain
2. In order to be the pivot of an emerging global order post the Russian-Ukraine conflict, India needs to surpass multiple challenges. Critically Analyze.

THE CONTEXT: On 17 March 2022, the Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj released the Disaster Management Plan of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (DMP-MoPR) with the idea of monitoring, mitigating, and even developing the preparedness at the grass-root level. This article analyzes the role, responsibilities, and issues faced by the PRIs in crisis times and disaster management.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT PLAN OF MINISTRY OF PANCHAYATI RAJ (DMP-MoPR)

ABOUT DMP-MoPR:

• Under the Plan, every Indian village would have a “Village Disaster Management Plan” and every Panchayat would have its Disaster Management Plan.
• The aim is to build disaster resilience at the grassroots level among the Panchayats and establish a framework to align the disaster management measures in rural areas to that of the National Disaster Management Authority.
• It incorporates many innovations in addition to being in compliance with Disaster Management Act 2005, National Disaster Management Policy 2009, and guidelines issued by National Disaster Management Authority.
• It has been prepared with a larger perspective of community-based planning starting from Village to the District Panchayat level.

ISSUES COVERED:

• It comprehensively covers areas such as:
• Institutional arrangement for Disaster Management.
• Hazard Risk, Vulnerability, and Capacity Analysis.
• Coherence of Disaster Risk Management across Resilient Development and Climate Change Action.
• Disaster Specific Preventive and Mitigation Measures-Responsibility Framework.
• Mainstreaming of Community Based Disaster Management Plan of Villages and Panchayats and so on.

NEED FOR THE DISASTER MANAGEMENT PLAN AT THE VILLAGE AND PANCHAYAT LEVEL

VULNERABILITY TO DISASTERS:

• India is the 7th most disaster-prone country in the world according to the “Global Climate Risk Index 2021” released by German watch, based in Bonn and Berlin (Germany).

INEFFICIENT SOPS:

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are virtually non-existent and even where such SOPs exist, the authorities concerned are unfamiliar with them.

LACK OF COORDINATION:

• The States also suffer from inadequate coordination among various government departments and other stakeholders.
• The Indian system for disaster management also suffers from the absence of an institutional framework at the Center/State/District level.

POOR WARNING AND RELIEF SYSTEMS:

• India lacks a proper early warning system.
• Slow response from relief agencies, lack of trained/dedicated search and rescue teams, and poor community empowerment are other important challenges.

ROLE OF PRIs IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT

HANDLING DISASTERS AT THE GRASS-ROOT LEVEL:

• The devolution of power and responsibilities to the panchayats will result in flexible and committed responses at the grass-root level in the case of natural calamities.
• Effective and Strong PRIs, working in harmony with the state government, will help tackle the disaster through early warning systems.
• Local population has insights of topography and acquired wisdom of generations to deal with any such kind of crisis situation. Such knowledge can be harnessed at a larger level for the common good.
• Community actions have a significant role in disaster response. For instance:
• The socio-demographic variables and self-satisfaction of community resilience in the context of the Kerala floods of 2018 (the fishermen who were prominent amongst the first responders during this flood).
• Odisha has recurrently been in the news in recent years for the exemplary way in which it has managed to cope with the disasters that have struck its coast and affected its people. Community-based disaster risk reduction is at the very heart of Odisha’s approach to disaster management.

ENSURING BETTER RELIEF OPERATIONS:

• Local bodies being nearer to the people are in a better position to undertake relief tasks as they are more familiar with the requirements of the local people.
• This ensures total transparency in working and usage of funds in every disaster situation.
• They can also be relied upon for undertaking day-to-day running of civic services, providing shelter and medical assistance to affected people, etc.

SPREADING AWARENESS AND GAINING COOPERATION:

• Local government institutions have grass-root level contact with people and they can help effectively in spreading awareness and ensure people’s participation in fighting the crisis.
• They are also ideal channels for NGOs and other agencies’ participation in the rescue and relief operations.

PAST EXPERIENCES – PRIS’ RESPONSE DURING COVID-19:

Amid the peak months of the pandemic, the PRIs played a remarkable role by providing essential leadership at the local level.

• Performed Regulatory and Welfare Functions: PRIs set up containment zones, arranged transport, identified buildings for quarantining people, and provisioned food for the incoming migrants.
• Effective implementation of welfare schemes like MGNREGA and the National Rural Livelihood Mission quickened the pace of recovery while ensuring support to the vulnerable population.
• Made Effective Collaborations: During the pandemic, gram sabhas resolved to adhere to Covid-19 norms. Also, regular engagement with frontline workers like ASHA workers and Anganwadi workers through committees further assisted in handling the pandemic at local levels.
• Organised Local Monitoring Bodies: PRIs organised community-based surveillance systems involving village elders, the youth, and self-help groups (SHGs) to keep a strict vigil in quarantine centres and monitor symptoms in households.

ISSUES FACED BY PRIs

UNCLEAR DOMAINS OF PANCHAYATS:

• Though PRIs are a three-tier integrated arrangement of the village, block, and district levels, they have remained largely ineffective as a consequence of ambiguous jurisdictions and unclear linkages.
• Even in respect of the National Disaster Management Act 2005, the powers and responsibilities of panchayats are inadequately defined and left to be determined by respective state governments.

INCOMPLETE AUTONOMY:

• Panchayats lack systems, resources, and capacities to act independently due to numerous constraints imposed by district administrations and state governments.
• Instead of becoming institutions of local self-governance, as envisaged by the constitution, panchayats mostly act as field implementers of decisions made by state and central governments.

UNAVAILABILITY OF FUNDS:

• The Panchayats are not given enough funds and are bypassed by State-controlled line departments that continue to implement programmes falling within the rightful domain of the former.

INTERFERENCE FROM MPS AND MLAS:

• The interference of area MPs and MLAs in the functioning of panchayats adversely affects the performance of Panchayats.

SIGNIFICANCE OF DMP-MoPR

HELPFUL IN MANAGING DISASTERS COMPREHENSIVELY:

• The convergent and collective actions to envision, plan and implement community-based disaster management plans, would be a game-changer in managing disasters comprehensively.
• All stakeholders including Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI), elected representatives and functionaries of Panchayats, etc. would participate in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the plan.
• The involvement of the community is the key factor in any disaster preparedness strategy and active participation of the community is vital to carry out and sustain the activities relating to disaster management in rural areas.

ENSURE PARTICIPATORY PLANNING PROCESS:

• This plan would be extremely useful for ensuring a participatory planning process for DMPs which is integrated with the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) for addressing disasters across the country and initiate a new era of community-based disaster management, convergence, and collective action with programs and schemes of different Ministries / Departments.

THE ANALYSIS:

• Panchayat- level and village-level Disaster Management Plans, envisage mitigating the challenges in the event of a disaster, at the grassroots and foundational level and it is imperative to keep disaster management plans in mind while making a master plan for the holistic development of Panchayats.
• Most appropriate institution: The Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI), the representative body of the people, is the most appropriate institution from the village to the district level in view of its proximity, universal coverage, and enlisting people’s participation in an institutionalised manner. Their close involvement will make people more prepared for countering natural disasters as well as involve them in all possible precautionary and protective activities so that the impact of the disasters is mitigated and the people are able to save their lives and property.
• Social mobilisation: The PRIs can act as catalysts to the social mobilisation process and tap the traditional wisdom of the local communities to complement the modern practices in disaster mitigation efforts.
• Integration: PRIs will also provide a base for integration of various concerns of the community with that of the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) which are engaged in various developmental activities at the grassroots level.
• Leadership Role: The Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) members can play a role of leadership in Disaster management at all stages. Right from the preparatory stage up to the handling of the long-term development activities for risk reduction.
• Though the idea behind such an initiative is commendable the scarcity of resources, deprived authority to make decisions, and lack of guidance, information, and leadership qualities among the locals might prove to be an impediment.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• Resource Availability and Self-Reliance: Local governance, local leaders, and local communities, when empowered can respond to any disaster rapidly and effectively. The local bodies require information and guidance and must-have resources, capacities, and systems in place to act with confidence, without waiting for instructions from above.
• The shift in Disaster Management Paradigm: There is an urgent need for a shift from risk mitigation cum relief-centric approach in disaster management into an integrated plan for economic development with social justice.
• Early warning systems, preparedness, preventive measures, and awareness among people are as much an important part of disaster management as is recovery planning, rehabilitation and other relief measures, which should be focused along with assigning roles to individual members and providing them with the necessary skills can make such programmes more meaningful.
• Collective Participation: Conducting regular, location-specific disaster-management programmes for the community and organising platforms for sharing best practices will strengthen individual and institutional capacities, which can even be replicated in other parts of the country facing similar issues.
• It is imperative to make disaster resilience an inherent part of the community culture now more than ever.

THE CONCLUSION: India has been vulnerable, in varying degrees, to too many natural as well as human-made disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic and socio-economic conditions. Different parts of the country are highly vulnerable to cyclones, floods, droughts, earthquakes, landslides, etc. Considering the important role that local communities can play in reducing vulnerabilities and early recovery, DMP-MoPR will initiate a new era of community-based disaster management and collective action.

Mains Practice Questions:

1. “Disaster Management Plan framed by Ministry of Panchayati Raj would contribute to the efforts of the government in bringing convergence in disaster management and planning in rural areas.” Elaborate.
2. “The convergent and collective actions to envision, plan and implement community-based disaster management plans, would be a game-changer for the country in managing disasters comprehensively.” Critically evaluate the above-given statement in the context of autonomy and powers of the Panchayati Raj institutions.

ADD TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE

INDIA’S EFFORTS IN MANAGING DISASTER

THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN INDIA:

It was the impact of the Tsunami in 2004 that catalysed the approach of the lawmakers in India to legislate on disaster management and the Disaster Management Act was passed in 2005. The institutional structure for disaster management is hierarchical and functions at three levels – centre, state, and district. It is a multi-stakeholder setup and draws the involvement of various relevant ministries, government departments, and administrative bodies.

The Act provides for the constitution of the following institutions at the national, state, and district levels:

1. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA):

• Responsible for laying down the policies, plans, and guidelines for disaster management and for ensuring timely and effective response to the disaster.
• It consists of not more than nine members with Prime Minister as its ex-officio chairperson.

2. State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA)

• A state Disaster Management Authority is established by every state government.
• The Chief Minister of the state is the chairperson of SDMA. There are a maximum of 9 members other than the chairperson.

3. District Disaster Management Authority

• The DDMA are set up by the state government via a notification in the state budget. It consists of Chairperson and seven members. The collector District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner would be the chairman.
• The DDMA works as a district planning, coordinating, and implementing body for disaster management.
• It will coordinate with the upper two tiers of the structure and will plan the implementation of the prevention, mitigation, and preparedness at the local level.

4. National Institute of Disaster Management

• It is responsible for planning and promoting training and research in the area of disaster management.
• It is a premier national organization working for human resource development at the national level in the area of disaster management.

5. National Disaster Response Force

• Specialist response force to a threatening disaster situation or disaster. The general superintendence, direction, and control of the Force shall be vested and exercised by NDMA.
• Presently it has the strength of 10 battalions positioned at different locations in the country to provide timely response to any crisis situation.

MANAGING CLIMATE CHANGE-RELATED DISASTERS:

• Globally, disasters in the last two decades have predominantly been climate-related disasters, of which floods are the most frequently occurring type of disaster and storms are the second most deadly type of disaster followed by earthquakes.
• India has adopted the Sendai Framework for DRR, the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030), and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, all of which make clear the connections between DRR, Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), and sustainable development.
• India participates in several multilateral organisations that address these and other issues that benefit from multinational coordination.

CONTRIBUTION TO REGIONAL DISASTER PREPAREDNESS:

• As part of its neighbourhood development efforts, India also contributes to regional disaster preparedness and capacity-building efforts.
• Within the context of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), India has hosted DM Exercises that allow NDRF to demonstrate to counterparts from partner states the techniques developed to respond to various disasters.
• Other NDRF and Indian Armed Forces exercises have brought India’s first responders into contact with those from states in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

INDIA’S ROLE AS A FOREIGN DISASTER RELIEF:

• India is also an emerging donor that has provided a substantial amount of foreign disaster relief, as well as foreign development assistance, to other countries.
• India’s foreign humanitarian assistance has increasingly included its military assets, primarily deploying naval ships or aircraft to deliver relief.
• In line with its diplomatic policy of “Neighbourhood First,” many of the recipient countries have been in the region of South and Southeast Asia.
• In the last two decades, India has given foreign humanitarian assistance bilaterally to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and others.
• Few Egs:
• 2004 Tsunami relief.
• 2015 Nepal earthquake relief.
• One of the components in Mission SAGAR.
• Vaccine diplomacy.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT CYCLE

THE CONTEXT: Fifteenth Finance Commission Chairperson NK Singh on 19 April 2022 delivered a lecture at the Delhi School of Economics and warned about how the politics of freebies could lead to fiscal disasters. Over the years the politics of freebies has become an integral part of the electoral battles in India and the scenario was no different in the recently held assembly polls in five states, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab, and Manipur. This article analyzes the socio-economic costs of freebies by distinguishing them from the concept of “expenditure on the public good, having overall benefits.”

THE IDEA OF FREEBIES:

• The literal meaning of freebie is something that is given free of charge or cost.
• Political parties are outdoing each other in promising free electricity and water supply, laptops, cycles, electronic appliances, etc. These are called ‘freebies’ and are characterized as unwise for long-term fiscal stability.
• However, during the pandemic, governments (both Union and states), as well as the RBI, took several measures to mitigate pandemic effects. This included expansion of the food security scheme for two full years; cash transfer schemes for farmers, expansion of the jobs scheme, etc.

THE COMPLEX ISSUE OF FREEBIES:

• There is great ambiguity in what “freebies” mean.
• Merit goods Vs. Public goods: We need to distinguish between the concept of merit goods and public goods on which expenditure outlays have overall benefits such as the strengthening and deepening of the public distribution system, employment guarantee schemes, support for education and enhanced outlays for health, particularly during the pandemic.
• Around the world, these are considered to be desirable expenditures.
• It is important to analyse, not how cheap the freebies are but how expensive they are for the economy, life quality, and social cohesion in the long run.

Merit goods: are those public goods that result in interference with consumer choices. Here the government will be providing the goods (merit) to a specific section of the society because of their backward status, poverty, etc (depending on their merit, like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan).

Public goods: refer to those goods which satisfy public wants. The main attribute of a public good is that they are supplied by the government jointly for the entire public. Examples of public goods are defense services, pollution control, streetlight, etc.

REASONS FOR THE RISE OF FREEBIE CULTURE DURING ELECTIONS

CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE FOR THE WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS:

• It is based on the principles of equality and is keen to provide equal opportunity to all. It also aims to ensure equitable distribution of wealth. The 4th century BC treatise on the art of statecraft laid out a framework for good governance and welfare, however in present times it is imperative to draw a line between dole or a handout and spending on the public good having greater benefits.

POLITICAL MANDATE: 

• Political parties contesting the polls release their manifesto stating their aims and plans for every section of the society albeit having much of the focus on announcing schemes for their largest chunk of the vote bank i.e. the lower strata of the society.
• Freebies are often used as a tool to conceal the poor performance of the incumbent government on the socio-economic parameters and provide an opportunity to alter the voter’s mindset from real issues to short-term gains.

HISTORICAL BAGGAGE:

• Since independence, parties have been promising some form of freebies to attract voters.
• Even if a new party comes to power, then also it can’t rationalize or outrightly abolish the freebie commitments of prior governments.
• For e.g., Several State Governments have been forced to continue power and irrigation subsidies due to political pressure. Governments fear that discontinuance will antagonize their voter base.

COMPETITIVE POLITICS AND DOMINO EFFECT:

• The rise in coalition era politics since the 1990s has witnessed a rise of new political parties. These small and new parties have to offer more freebies than larger parties to lure the voters. Moreover the increase in competition among the parties to seek the votes, each party tries to outdo the others in terms of populist promises.

ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF FREEBIES

WELFARE STATE:

• The Constitution places an obligation on the State to take proactive measures for the welfare of the poor and downtrodden.
• For instance, Art. 39(b) of The Constitution of India calls for resource distribution for achieving a common good.

GLARING INEQUALITY IN THE SOCIETY: 

• In India, there is a wide inequality between the rich and the poor in terms of income and wealth. The OXFAM report 2021 showed that the income of 84% of households in the country declined in 2021, but at the same time the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 142.

STRUCTURAL HURDLES AND MAKING THE BENEFITS OF GROWTH REACH THE LOWEST LEVEL: 

• They gave up land for cities, roads, factories, and dams. However, they largely became landless workers and slum dwellers. Several economists argue that the gains of development have hardly trickled down to the most marginalized section of the society, especially after 1991. The cost of freebies offered is a fraction of what the poor lose.
• The World Bank recognized in the 1980’s that the prevalent policies marginalize the poor and a ‘safety net’ (freebies) is needed.

ECONOMIC PUSH:

• They help increase the demand that prevents the rate of growth from declining further. Free education and health are anyway justified because they are cases of ‘merit wants’ and increase the productivity of labour.

SOCIAL STABILITY:

• Freebies enable the government to release the growing discontent in the marginalized section. They keep a lid on societal disruption which would be far more expensive.

INCENTIVES FOR THE RICH:

• The well-off and businesses get ‘freebies’ that are euphemistically called ‘incentives’. Since 2006, the Union Budget estimates these to be between Rs 4-6 lakh crore each year. If the well-off who don’t really need freebies can get so much, why can’t the marginalized (especially women and youth) get a fraction of it?

CUSHION DURING EMERGENCIES:

• COVID-19 has been one of the biggest health emergencies in the world for over a century. Such extreme events warrant state support to prevent chaos and disruption in society e.g., the free COVID-19 vaccination for every individual in India led to more prudent management of the pandemic.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST FREEBIES

UNDERMINES THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY: 

• This is the primary concern as many people tend to vote for parties based on the free incentives offered by them. They fail to judge them on their performance and don’t utilize their franchise as per merit. Even the Supreme Court has observed that freebies shake the root of free and fair elections.
  

FALL IN PRODUCTIVITY:

• Freebies create a feeling in the masses that they can live with minimal effort. This decreases their productivity towards work e.g., a trend has been created that whoever avail loan from banks does not repay them, expecting a waiver of loans during the election. This gives rise to moral hazard and an incentive to default.

FISCAL STRESS:

• Freebies generally form part of revenue expenditure. Excess allocation towards them leaves little to spend on capital expenditure which is a prerequisite for achieving long-term growth.
• A case in point is the states which have been rolling out freebies in keeping with poll promises and ended up increased public debt with unsustainable fiscal conditions.

DISCOURAGES THE HONEST TAXPAYER:

• It creates a sense of discontentment in the mind of an honest taxpayer whose money is used to fund the freebie expenditure. This feeling is more dominant especially when the State is unable to improve the public services due to freebie commitments.

SECTORAL COLLAPSE:

• The populist measures of loan waivers have put significant pressure on the banking sector.
• Similarly, rising power subsidies have enhanced pressures on Discoms who are failing to sustain themselves.

WASTAGE OF RESOURCES:

• Promises of free water and electricity create severe stress on the water table and lead to over-exploitation as seen in the states of Punjab and Haryana.
• NITI Aayog has cautioned that 21 major cities of India are on the verge of running out of groundwater in a few years.

ALLEGED INFRINGEMENT OF CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS:

• Promise/distribution of irrational freebies from the public fund before election unduly influences the voters, shakes the roots of the free-fair election, disturbs level playing field, vitiates the purity of the election process, and also allegedly violates Articles 14, 162, 266(3) and 282.

LANGUOR AMONG THE MASSES:

• Recurring the nature of the freebies in the Indian socio-political scenario also makes the masses develop the habit of acting irresponsibly and dampen their spirit to work hard.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE ISSUE

• India could face the prospect of sub-national bankruptcies if States continued to dole out freebies to influence the electorate, Fifteenth Finance Commission Chairperson NK Singh cautioned, terming the political competition over such sops a “quick passport to fiscal disaster”.
• We must strive instead, for a race to efficiency through laboratories of democracy and sanguine federalism where states use their authority to harness innovative ideas and solutions to common problems which other states can emulate.
• If the political parties go for effective economic policies where the welfare policies or government schemes have good reach without any leakages or corruption and it is targeted at the right audience, then infrastructure and development will take care of themselves and the people will not require such kinds of freebies.
• Central government’s debt-to-GDP ratio is supposed to be 40% but now it has crossed 90%of the GDP, while the states have managed to keep their debt-to-GDP ratio at almost 27% in FY 2020. Hence the problem of financial stability is more pressing at the level of the centre.
• Political parties shall also provide the road map for achieving the targets mentioned in the manifesto and also the rationale behind enlisting such targets.
• Certain freebies are important to cushion or safeguard the socio-economic fabric such as the basic healthcare facilities, school education, subsidized ration, etc. Such interventions by the government, guide the economy in the long term growth by strengthening the human capital.
• Freebies during the crises situation also help in sustaining the economic cycle through demand pull growth such as in COVID times.
• Qualified freebies such as the ascribed conditions of creating public assets through MGNREGA also contribute in more than one way in economic growth by increasing the productive capacity of the population.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• There should be a strengthening of internal party democracy so that promises of development and not freebies are made in the elections. This would also reduce the magnitude of the criminalization of politics.
• The Election Commission should be given greater powers like the power to deregister a political party, power of contempt, etc. This would curtail the distribution of liquor and other goods during elections and ensure expenditure as per the desired limit.
• The Government should use the money spent on freebies towards job creation and infrastructure development as advised by Madras HC in 2021. This will lead to social upliftment and progression of the State.
• The focus should now be tilted on improving the efficiency of public expenditure. This requires focusing on outcomes and not merely outlays. One good example is the Pradhan Mantri UjjwalaYojana:
• Arresting the health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuels thereby reducing the out of the pocket expenditure on health.
• Employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.
• Improving India’s performance on Sustainable Development Goals-SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 5 (gender equality) and especially SDG 7, which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.
• Distribution of LPG subsidy through direct benefit transfer (DBT) also led to a decline in the subsidy bill.
• In the long run, eradication of unnecessary freebie culture requires an attitudinal change in the masses. It is high time that the ruling government should be made accountable for using tax revenue because freebies always prove to be a burden on taxpayers.
• The idea rendered by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has called for a wider debate on the freebies promised during polls and the possibility of making election manifestos legally binding. This will restrict the poll parties from making extravagant promises.

THE CONCLUSION: India has experienced the politics of freebies for a long time and the outcome of those policies has been sub-optimal, inefficient, and unsustainable. Therefore rather than doling out money, the focus should be on spending it efficiently. It is high time the discourse on improving public expenditure efficiency should take center stage while discussing the role of fiscal policy in India. However, until that is achieved, reliance on acceptable freebies like health, education, etc. can’t be completely stopped.

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTIONS:

1. ‘Instead of announcing freebies on the eve of elections, political parties need to come out with a clear road map with definitive time frames to solve the problems being faced by people for years.’ Elaborate.
2. ‘Irrational freebies in an under-tax country like India are not economically viable in the long run.’ Critically evaluate.

THE CONTEXT: On April 7, 2022, in the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, the Union home minister said that Hindi, not a local language, should be acknowledged as an alternative to English. He added that people of different states should connect with each other in Hindi, not English. This has generated a debate that the Union government is trying to impose Hindi on the speakers of other languages. This article examines this issue in detail.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE HOME MINISTER’S SPEECH

Union Home Minister remarked that people from different states should start talking to each other in Hindi while presiding over a meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee. In various parts of the country, Hindi should be learned as a second language after a mother tongue. He declared Hindi to be the “language of India” and claimed it should be considered a viable alternative to English. Now the time has come to make the Official Language an important part of the Unity of the country. He also stated that Hindi would have become a compulsory language in the North-East.

WHAT ARE THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS REGARDING OFFICIAL LANGUAGES?

PART 17 OF THE CONSTITUTION:

• Part 17 of the Indian Constitution (Articles 343 to 351) has detailed provisions concerning the official language of the Republic of India.
• Articles 343 and 344 of the Indian Constitution include the key provisions governing the Union’s official language.
• The Constitution does not provide for a national language.

ENGLISH AND HINDI AS THE CO-OFFICIAL LANGUAGES:

• The Official Language of the Union is Hindi, written in Devanagari script.
• The original Constitution stipulated that English would be used for all official purposes of the Union for a period of 15 years from the date of the Constitution’s adoption.
• The Constitution stated that the President might, by order, permit the use of Hindi in addition to English and the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the Union’s official purposes for the specified term.

ROLE OF THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT:

• The Constitution also states that the Parliament may, by law, provide for the continued use of English for any specific purpose beyond 15 years.
• The Constitution has given the central government complete control over the formulation and implementation of language policy.
• It is also the role of the center to promote and develop the Union’s official language (Hindi) (Art. 351).

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE STATES:

• Though Hindi is the official language of India, the states may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the state or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that state.

LANGUAGE OF COMMUNICATION:

• According to Article 346, the official language ​​of communication between one state and another, or between states and the Union, is English.
• If two or more states agree that Hindi can be the official language of communication between those states, that language can be used for such communication.

COMMISSION CONSTITUTED UNDER ART 344:

• The President at the expiration of five years from the commencement of the Constitution and thereafter at the expiration of ten years by order constitute a Commission.
• It will consist of a Chairman and other members representing the different languages specified in the Eighth Schedule.
• It shall be the duty of the Commission to make recommendations to the President as to:
• the progressive use of the Hindi language for the official purposes of the Union.
• restrictions on the use of the English language for all or any of the official purposes of the Union etc,.

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE COMMITTEE OF THE PARLIAMENT

As per Article 344, a Committee consisting of thirty members, of whom twenty shall be members of the House of the People and ten shall be members of the Council of States, will be constituted. The members will be elected respectively by the members of the House of the People and the members of the Council of States in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. It shall be the duty of the Committee to examine the recommendations of the Commission constituted under Art 344 and to report to the President their opinion thereon.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE ISSUE OF LANGUAGE SINCE INDEPENDENCE

PRE-INDEPENDENCE: 

• Before India became independent, the sole language in use for all official and administrative purposes was English.
• In 1947, when India gained Independence, the issue of language was one of the most hotly contested in the Constituent Assembly debates.
• While many of our founding fathers had called for Sanskrit and Hindi to be used as our republic’s lingua franca, there was major dissent from the people who did not speak Hindi as a native tongue.

STATE RE-ORGANISATION:

• The 1948 Linguistic Provinces Commission, also known as the Dhar Commission, observed that the formation of provinces exclusively on or even mainly on linguistic considerations is not in the larger interests of the Indian nation.
• The Fazal Ali Commission, 1953 recommended restructuring the states based on language but not before giving a sound rationale for the same.
  

LANGUAGE CONFLICT:

• Vehement opposition from the legislators and agitation from the student intelligentsia, especially in Tamil Nadu, forced the then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri to make a national radio broadcast assuring the Tamils that English would be continued to be used in interstate and Centre-state communications and in Civil Services Examinations.
• In 1967, the Indira Gandhi government amended the 1963 Official Languages Act and allowed for the continuation of English as the lingua franca of the Indian Union.

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY:

• The NEP draft earlier made studying Hindi mandatory till Class 8 in non-Hindi-speaking states, and due to opposition, it was dropped.

PRESENT ISSUE:

• Hindi as the link language and the opposition to it.

ENGLISH AS THE PREFERED MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

The 2011 language census uncovered that only 12 out of India’s then 35 states chose Hindi as their first language. Even though Hindi is spoken by about 43% of India’s population, only 26% or just over 1/4th of Indians speak the language as their mother tongue. The 2020 NEP, which the Union Cabinet approved, called for the medium of instruction to be the mother tongue of a student ‘whenever possible’ till the VIIIth standard. According to a Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) report of 2019-20, despite Hindi remaining the biggest medium of instruction in India, accounting for around 42% of the share, the preference for the English medium is on the rise. Studies indicate J&K has nearly 100% enrolment in English, trailed by Telangana, which has a nearly 75% enrolment. Another 2020 NSO study found that over 50% of pre-primary schoolchildren who spoke one of 13 regional languages at home, including Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Punjabi, were enrolled in English medium schools.

WHAT ARE THE ARGUMENTS FOR HINDI AS A LINK LANGUAGE?

SPOKEN BY A LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE: A large number of people speak Hindi either as their mother tongue or otherwise, and hence promoting Hindi will be more feasible than other languages.

IDENTITY OF THE NATION: The entire country must have one language that becomes the identity of the nation in the world. If there is any language that can tie the whole country in one thread, it is the most spoken language of, Hindi.

ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS: Having a language that is spoken and understood by all the people of a country is beneficial from the economic standpoint as it will provide for effective communication, open up new markets and improve trust between the seller and buyer.

SOCIAL MILIEU: Lack of understanding of each other’s language is held to create distance between individuals and communities, which impacts social cohesion and prevent generating social capital.

CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE: A holistic reading of Part 17 of the Constitution, the Official Language Act 1963, various policies and schemes of the government make it clear that there is a strong mandate for promoting Hindi. The idea of a link language is one approach in this direction.

GANDHIAN VIEW: Mahatma Gandhi, during the freedom struggle, had described Hindi as the national language and called for its adoption and many members of the Constituent Assembly echoed such sentiments.

WHAT ARE THE CRITICISMS OF SUCH A PROPOSAL?

CENSUS DATA EVIDENCE:

• Residents of only 12 of the 35 States and Union Territories (UTs) reported Hindi as their first choice of language for communication (Census 2011).
• But there is a caveat. “Hindi” is an umbrella term encompassing 56 languages (mother tongues), including Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Hindi, and Chhattisgarhi.
• While 43% of Indians speak “Hindi”, only 26% speak Hindi specifically as their mother tongue.

UTILITARIAN ARGUMENT:

• The claim that Hindi is a better language than English because the majority speaks it cannot be sustained since it is a majoritarian argument.
• Instead, we must address a pragmatic question: which language, Hindi, or English, would be more advantageous to citizens as they pursue better lives?
• To put it another way, would learning English assist native Hindi speakers, or should Hindi be pushed on the non-Hindi speaking populace for their “benefit”?

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX COMPARISON:

• A comparison of the Human Development Index (HDI) of States and UTs reveals that regions with a higher share of English speakers have higher HDI scores (Chart 1), while states with a higher share of Hindi speakers have lower HDI scores (Chart 2).
• This indicates that greater quality of life correlates with a higher proportion of English speakers.

MIGRATION AND LANGUAGE:

• More people from the Hindi-speaking States have been migrating to the non-Hindi-speaking regions in search of better livelihoods.
• An analysis of the 2011 Census data also shows that net in-migration for the Hindi States, where Hindi is spoken by at least 50% of the population, is negative.
• This indicates that the migrant outflow was higher than the inflow in these States. In non-Hindi States, the net in-migration was positive. This pattern was observed for all types of migrations, including those done for work and education.

DEPRIVATION OF OPPORTUNITIES:

• Native Hindi speakers will have a clear advantage over others when it comes to employment opportunities.
• Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar will beat Telugus and Kannadigas, and Malayalees with ease in the job market, where language abilities are a primary factor.

POLITICAL AND CIVIL SOCIETY OPPOSITION:

• The north-eastern states, the southern states, especially Tamil Nadu, are regions where Hindi is very negligibly used.
• Different political parties and civil society organisations have raised concerns against the proposal to make Hindi the communication language.
• Making one language, a communication language is considered a step towards centralisation and degrading other dialects.

ENGLISH IN A HINDI STATE: THE UTTAR PRADESH EXAMPLE

In what looks like a revolution, the UP Government recently made 15,000 primary and upper primary schools switch to English as the medium of instruction. Reports said that the objective of the policy switch was to develop the English-speaking skills of children studying in government schools so that they could compete effectively with students coming from convent-run schools.

THE WAY FORWARD

• Although the promotion of Hindi needs to be undertaken through multiple media, the perception of its imposition needs to be avoided.
• The Unity of our country is built and strengthened on the edifice of diversity and not on homogeneity and sameness. Hence, while there can be efforts to develop a language that will aid in effective communication and trust-building among communities, other languages should also be given their due status.
• As English has significant utilitarian value, especially in a globalised economy and given India’s inherent strength of the service sector, English language teaching and learning also should be given impetus.
• Higher political functionaries of the government need to focus on building consensus on sensitive issues.
• Making Hindi flexible by accepting words from other local languages would help promote both Hindi and local Indian languages.

THE CONCLUSION: The idea of a national language finds its expression in multiple areas, including the debate over “link language”. While it is desirable to have a language spoken and understood by all, it is not necessary for a nation’s integrity and progress, as seen in Canada, the USA, etc. In fact, politics need to focus on the “bread and butter issues” in India and not rake up issues that have no immediate relevance. Nevertheless, the debate over the link language needs to be seen in the larger context of centralisation tendencies the polity is experiencing which is not a healthy proposition for good governance.

QUESTIONS:

1. By explaining the Constitutional provisions related to Official Languages, comment upon the debate over Hindi as the link language.
2. The idea of a national language finds its expression in multiple areas, including the debate over link language. While it is desirable to have a language spoken and understood by all, it is not necessary for a nation’s integrity and progress. Critically Analyse.

THE CONTEXT: In the second week of April 2022, the USA hosted the fourth India-U.S. 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue. The dialogue was preceded by a virtual meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joseph Biden. Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar participated in the dialogue from India. In this article, we will analyse the outcome of the dialogue.

WHAT IS 2+2 DIALOGUE?

• 2+2 Ministerial is the highest-level institutional mechanism between the two countries.
• It is a format of dialogue where the defense/foreign ministers or secretaries meet with their counterparts from another country.
• India has 2+2 dialogues with four key strategic partners: the US, Australia, Japan, and Russia.

KEY ISSUES DISCUSSED IN 2+2

• Ukraine-Russia war
• Global Partnership and Indo-Pacific Cooperation
• Mutual Prosperity, Innovation, and Resilient Supply Chains
• Climate, Environment, and Clean Energy
• Science, Technology, Cybersecurity, and Space
• Global Health
• Defense and Security
• Counterterrorism and Counter Narcotics
• Education and People-to-People Ties

OUTCOME OF THE DIALOGUE

ON UKRAINE:

• India’s refusal to criticize Russia or vote on UN resolutions criticizing Russia.
• India’s decision to increase its import of Russian oil.
• India’s refusal to join USA and EU sanctions and negotiate a payment mechanism to work around the sanctions through Rupee-Rouble payments.

INDO-PACIFIC, QUAD, AND CHINA:

• Like with Russia, the Joint Statement did not refer directly to China.
• As an associate partner, India would join the Bahrain-based multilateral partnership, Combined Maritime Force (CMF).
• The CMF is a multinational maritime partnership, which exists to uphold the Rules-Based International Order (RBIO) by countering illicit non-state actors on the high seas and promoting security, stability, and prosperity.

MILITARY COOPERATION:

• MoU on Space Situational Awareness Agreement, the two sides have launched a cyberspace dialogue this year.
• More bilateral and multilateral military exercises to enrich the defence partnership between the two countries.
• Cooperation on co-production, co-development, cooperative testing of advanced defence systems, investment promotion, and the development of Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities in India.
• This is important as India has often linked its defence dependency on Russia to the transfer of technology and co-production opportunities.
• Explore possibilities of utilizing Indian shipyards to support mid-voyage repair of US Naval ships- this would be a new step forward.

BILATERAL PEOPLE TO PEOPLE TIES:

• Values and bonds are strengthened by about 200,000 Indian students in the US.
• They set up a Working Group on Education and Skill Training, which will bring academic institutions in the United States and India together to develop new joint research programs.

HUMAN RIGHTS:

• This perhaps was an area the meeting went off-script, as US Secretary of State Blinken said at the joint press conference that there were concerns about India’s record.
• Later, in a State Department 2021 Human Rights report that included a chapter on India listing a number of allegations against the government and police forces.
• However, Mr. Jaishankar said that Human Rights had not been discussed at the 2+2 and that India too had concerns about Human Rights in the US, like the attacks on 2 Sikhs in New York.

ANALYSIS OF THE OUTCOME

INDIA FOLLOWS AN INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY: 

• Despite creating too much pressure from the USA side, India maintained its foreign policy and gave preference to its own interest.
• Before the dialogue, the USA argued to India not to import oil from Russia, but India refused it by saying that India just imports only 1-2% of Russia’s oil.

DEFENSE:

• More military exercise is a good step to counter the Chinese activities in the Indo-pacific area.
• Apart from it, cooperation in the field of defence testing systems is an important development, which has often linked its defence dependency on Russia to the transfer of technology and co-production opportunities.

ON CHINA:

• Both countries tried to maintain a distance from China’s aggression on India’s border; this shows that the USA and India don’t want to take any chance in the present circumstances.

HUMAN RIGHTS:

• The USA showed concerns about human rights violations in India. But later, foreign minister S. Jaishankar said that Human Rights had not been discussed at the 2+2 and that India too had concerns about Human Rights in the US, like the attacks on 2 Sikhs in New York.
• What was clear is that despite the talk of “shared values”, this is another area of dissonance between India and the US.

2+2 AND THE LOST OPPORTUNITIES

2+2 AND INDIA-USA RELATIONS: THE JOURNEY SO FAR

WHY SHOULD THE USA CONSIDER SOME OF INDIA’S CONCERNS REGARDING RUSSIA?

The relations between India-USA are deepening day by day, but India wants to maintain healthy relations with Russia also, and the USA should consider this. The USA should not pressure India to take a stand against Russia because of the following reasons:

THE WAY FORWARD

• PM Modi and President Biden discussed a new India Pacific Economic Framework Initiative- collaboration would include digital trade and supply chain resilience. This can open up more opportunities for enhancing cooperation between the two countries.
• India made it clear that it would retain its freedom of choice in maintaining a friendly relationship with Russia. These meetings helped better understand India’s position at the official level and reduced misperceptions and unrealistic expectations.
• It is hoped that the US would avoid unnecessary hectoring to India, particularly on sensitive issues, as the latter would be forced to respond likewise for its own reasons.
• Differences of views on certain issues cannot be resolved immediately, and both countries would need to nurture this relationship with patience, understanding, and positive approaches.

THE CONCLUSION: The recent 2+2 meeting between India and the USA was not big on announcements but sent a reassuring message on the strength of the India-US partnership and its ability to focus on bilateral ties, even amidst a major geopolitical challenge where the two countries are not on the same page.

Just add to your knowledge
2+2 BETWEEN INDIA AND USA

• The US is India’s oldest and most important 2+2 talks partner.
• The first 2+2 dialogue between the two countries was held during the Trump Administration in 2018.
• India and the US have signed a troika of “foundational pacts” for deep military cooperation:
• Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016,
• Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) after the first 2+2 dialogue in 2018,
• Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) in 2020.
• The strengthening of the cooperation mechanisms between the two militaries is of significance in the context of an increasingly aggressive China.

COMBINED MARITIME FORCES (CMF)

• The CMF is a multinational maritime partnership, which exists to uphold the Rules-Based International Order (RBIO) by countering illicit non-state actors on the high seas and promoting security, stability, and prosperity.
• CMF’s main focus areas are counter-narcotics, counter-smuggling, suppressing piracy, encouraging regional cooperation, engaging with regional and other partners to strengthen relevant capabilities in order to improve overall security and stability, and promoting a safe maritime environment free from illicit non-state actors.
• CMF has 34 member nations: Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom, United States, and Yemen.

Questions:

1. ‘The relations between India and the USA are deepening continuously, but these should not be at the cost of India-Russia relations. Comment
2. How far do you agree with the view that India leaning too much towards the USA will cost its foreign policy independence? Substantiate your view.
3. In recent times, the 2+2 dialogue initiatives in foreign policy provide more scope to resolve the bilateral issues. Analyse the statement in the context of India’s 2+2 dialogues with the USA.

THE CONTEXT: United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on 07 April 2022 suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over reports of gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights by invading Russian troops in Ukraine. This article analyses the issue in detail.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE DEVELOPMENT

REASONS BEHIND THE SUSPENSION:

• Russia was suspended from the UN Human Rights Council after the 193-member General Assembly voted to adopt a resolution moved by the United States over allegations that Russian troops killed civilians while pulling back from towns around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
• In the 193-member UNGA, 93 nations voted in favour of the resolution, while 24 were against it. Fifty-eight countries, including India, abstained from the process.
• This met the two-thirds majority benchmark in which only the voting members, not abstentions, are counted from the 193-member General Assembly.

THE PROCEDURE AND HISTORY:

• As per the rules, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) can suspend the rights and privileges of any Council member that it decides has persistently committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during its term of membership.
• To suspend a member, one needs a two-thirds majority vote by the General Assembly.
• This is only the second time the UNGA has suspended a country from the 47-member UN Human Rights Council after its formation in 2006. In 2011, Libya was thrown out through a resolution adopted by UNGA through consensus.
• But for the first time, one of the permanent members has lost its membership rights in a UN body.

INDIA’S STAND:

• India chose to abstain from the vote, saying that any such decision must follow the “due process” of investigation first. However, India also sharpened its criticism of Russia by reiterating the need to respect the three red lines in international relations:
• “Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states”,
• “UN Charter” and
• “International law”

AN ANALYSIS OF THE VOTE:

• Less than half the members of the UNGA voted in favour of the resolution, but it was enough to pass the resolution. The Russian permanent mission to the UN voiced its opinion on the social media platform that the adoption of the resolution was an “illegal and politically motivated step” to punish a country that pursues an independent foreign policy and also announced that Russia was voluntarily “terminating” its membership in UNHRC with immediate effect.
• Some countries even voted against the resolution for the reasons being:
• Heavier pressure from Russia for outright opposition to the resolution, rather than abstentions especially the countries having close ties with Moscow.
• The precedent of removing a country from the UNHRC because of human rights violations – while it may seem like an obvious step – would be controversial for a number of countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan both have faced criticisms for violations of human rights at home (both are members of UNHRC currently).
• Though Russia was in its second year of a three-year term on the Geneva-based council, which cannot make legally binding decisions. However, the council’s decisions send important political messages and can authorise investigations.
• Furthermore, India abstained from the resolution albeit reiterating the condemnation of the civilian killings in Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation.

THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

ABOUT: The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the world.

FORMATION:

• The Council was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006. It replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) serves as the Secretariat of the Human Rights Council.
• Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
  

MEMBERS:

• It is made up of 47 United Nations Member States which are elected by the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
• The Council’s Membership is based on equitable geographical distribution. Seats are distributed as follows:
• African States: 13 seats
• Asia-Pacific States: 13 seats
• Latin American and the Caribbean States: 8 seats
• Western European and other States: 7 seats
• Eastern European States: 6 seats
• The UNGA takes into account the candidate States’ contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard.

MECHANISMS:

• Universal Periodic Review: UPR serves to assess the human rights situations in all United Nations Member States. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists.
• Advisory Committee: It serves as the Council’s “think tank” providing it with expertise and advice on thematic human rights issues.
• Complaint Procedure: The complaint procedure addresses communications submitted by individuals, groups, or non-governmental organizations that claim to be victims of human rights violations or that have direct, reliable knowledge of such violations.
• The Council also established various subsidiary expert mechanisms to provide the Council with thematic expertise and forums providing a platform for dialogue and cooperation. These bodies focus mainly on studies, research-based advice, or best practices.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE UNHRC

UNHRC has played the role of a political platform that aims to ensure that human rights remain a top priority within the UN.

GLOBAL REACH: UNHRC has a wide mandate which facilitates it to respond to human rights cases across the globe. In doing so, it also brings the members of civil society together for voicing concerns related to human rights in their respective local regions.

SPECIAL PROCEDURES:

• The Human Rights Council’s Special Procedures mandate-holders are made up of special rapporteurs, independent experts, or working groups composed of five members who are appointed by the Council and who serve in their personal capacity. Special procedures undertake country visits; act on individual cases and concerns of a broader, structural nature by sending communications to States and other actors bringing alleged violations or abuses to their attention
• These independent experts report at least once a year to the Council on their findings and recommendations, as well as to the UN General Assembly. At times they are the only mechanism alerting the international community to certain human rights issues.
• There are two types of Special Procedures mandates: the thematic mandates, such as water and sanitation, arbitrary detention, the rights of migrants, violence against women, torture, and human trafficking, and the country-specific mandates.

UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW:

• The Universal Periodic Review motivates nation-level dialogues on human rights and also mandates that every UN member state examines human rights on a regular basis. It ensures transparency and accountability in the functioning of UNHCR.
• i.e. the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations.

CONDEMNING THE VIOLATIONS: In the recent past, the resolutions adopted by the UNHRC have highlighted and condemned distinctive violations despite the efforts to the contrary by some members of the HRC. For example, in the midst of the Arab Spring, the Human Rights Council voted unanimously to suspend Libya’s membership. More recently, the Council did not permit Syria to bid for a seat on grounds of human rights violations and appointed an investigation there.

ISSUE-BASED COALITIONS: There are an increasing number of countries from all parts of the world which have started working together to further human rights, irrespective of their shared history and regional politics. The regional bloc voting practices have become a matter of the past and considered discussion along with collective action is becoming possible.

DEBATE ON CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECT AREAS: Controversial subject areas have also been addressed at the HRC, including LGBTIQ rights and religious discrimination. South Africa’s efforts to acknowledge the rights of LGBTIQ faced strong opposition from neighbouring countries but it was supported by far-away countries like Brazil, Colombia, the United States, and many others.

THE CRITICISM OF THE UNHRC

BIASED FOCUS ON THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT CESSPOOL OF POLITICAL BIAS: The UNHRC is accused of an anti-Israel bias as it passes resolutions that focus on alleged Israeli human rights violations while ignoring similar allegations against the Palestinian side. Most recently the 49^th session of UNHRC that ended on 01 April 2022 passed a total of 35 resolutions and 3 of them were concerned with the Israel-Palestine issue (All 3 of them were in favour of Palestine).

MEMBERS WITH QUESTIONABLE HUMAN RIGHTS RECORDS: Just like the UN Commission on Humans Rights, the UN Human Rights Council also elects members like China, Pakistan, and Russia who have poor or questionable track records on Human rights. It raises questions on how effective or unbiased the organisation is.

IGNORANCE OF OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES: It was reported in 2008 that the UNHRC was being controlled by a few Middle-East and African nations with support from China and Russia, in order to shield each other from criticism.

LACK OF STANDARDS: The USA withdrew from the council during the Trump regime but again joined the present regime. The powerful member nations taking such steps also undermine the credibility of the global body.

GLOBAL REPRESENTATION: Although the geographical quota system addresses the disparities in global representation, it is also the Council’s most serious flaw. With a few honourable exceptions, the overwhelming majority of countries outside Western Europe and other groupings have flawed-to-abysmal human-rights records and policies. Many are not democracies. Few have representative governments. Fewer still have an incentive to pursue and commit to universal human rights.

INDIA AND THE UNHRC

• India was elected for the sixth time to the Council for a three-year term with an overwhelming majority that began on January 1, 2022.
• As part of the third stage of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, India’s National Human Rights Commission delivered its mid-term report to the Council in 2020.
• A number of UN Special Rapporteurs have also written to the Indian government, voicing their concerns about the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020. Though there are several concerns with the draft, a few of which are related to human rights are mentioned below:
• Opens the Floodgates of Violations: The environmental lawyers have argued that the Post-Facto Clearance of the Projects is likely to encourage industries to commence operations without bothering clearance and eventually get regularized by paying the penalty amount and thus opening the floodgates of violations.
• Strengthens the Government but Weakens the Public: The draft offers no remedy for the political and bureaucratic stronghold on the EIA process, and thereby on industries. Instead, it proposes to bolster the government’s discretionary power while limiting public engagement in safeguarding the environment. Also, the draft, by limiting public consultation, is not in consonance with protecting the rights of tribals, among others.
• Reduced Time means Reduced Awareness: The reduced notice period for a public hearing from 30 days to 20 days will only make it difficult to study the draft EIA report, more so when it is not widely available or provided in the regional language. Moreover, the reduction of time would particularly pose a problem in those areas where information is not easily accessible or areas in which people are not that well aware of the process itself.
• UNHRC Chief also voiced concerns and criticisms against India on various occasions such as:
• The impact of actions by the government of India on the human rights of the Kashmiri people, including restrictions on internet communications and peaceful assembly, and the detention of local political leaders and activists.
• Arbitrary use of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act throughout India.
• The National Register of Citizens verification process in the northeast Indian state of Assam, caused great uncertainty and anxiety among the people.
• The unprecedented farmers’ agitation at the borders of the national capital over the three farm laws also drew the attention of the UN human rights chief.
• India was quick and firm to present counter statements in defence of India’s stand on such issues and stated that:
• The UNHRC needs to be uniform, consistent, and even-handed when it comes to human rights abuse or denial of civil rights to people across the world and should not resort to a selective approach to seeking accountability for civil rights from different member states.
• India is also of the view that human rights shall be implemented in a non-selective manner and with due respect to non-interference in internal affairs.

THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

• India recently abstained from a vote at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Council passed a resolution calling for the formation of an international commission to investigate Russia’s conduct in Ukraine.
• India abstained from voting on resolutions concerning the Russia – Ukraine crisis, on as many as six occasions including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution concerning the safety of four nuclear power plants and a number of nuclear waste sites, including Chernobyl, because the Russians had taken control of them.

 THE WAY FORWARD – IMPROVING THE WORKING OF UNHRC

• The impact of the crisis had been felt beyond the region, with increasing food and energy costs, especially for developing countries, and it is in everyone’s collective interest to work constructively, within the UN and outside, towards seeking an early resolution to the conflict.
• No solution can be arrived at, by shedding blood and at the cost of innocent lives and it is peremptory to choose the side of peace and collectively work towards an immediate end to violence.
• UNHRC does not have a separate Secretariat. Though UNHRC and OHCHR function in tandem, both the bodies should have separate specialized secretariat staffs which will further enhance their functioning.
• The decisions on resolutions of the UNHCR are taken, based on the voting of the member nations. Consensus building might prove to be a more feasible approach in a multilateral body.
• To strengthen the global trust in the organisation it is imperative not to have a nation with a bad human rights record as a member of UNHRC.

THE CONCLUSION: Over a decade ago, when the UNHRC recommended the suspension of Libya to the General Assembly, there had been no vote since the resolution was adopted by consensus. The resolution against Russia is passed with 93 votes in favour, 24 against, and 58 abstentions i.e with consensus. A hasty move at the General Assembly, which forces countries to choose sides, will aggravate the division among member states, intensify the confrontation between the parties concerned, and could be adding fuel to the fire. The move to expel Russia may not contribute to reaching a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine war and could further escalate the polarisation in the international community. The credibility and legitimacy of the multilateral platforms will be enhanced with concrete steps to end the conflict, merely ousting a member would not be sufficient. The response/retaliation from Russia is yet to be seen which will further define the course of history.

Mains Practice Questions:

1. “The human rights record of some of the member-states in the council has not been in line with the aims and mission of the UNHRC, which has led to critics questioning its relevance.” In the light of the given statement critically examine the relevance of UNHRC in contemporary times.
2. “Despite the continued participation of several western countries in the UNHRC, they continue to harbour misgivings on the understanding of Human rights.” Elaborate.

THE CONTEXT: The Country Reports on Human Rights were released by the US Secretary of State on 12 April 2022. The report on India has flagged concerns over arbitrary arrests and detentions, extra-judicial killings, violence against religious minorities, curbs on free expression and media, including unjustified prosecution of journalists. This article primarily focuses on press freedom in India and concerns issues raised in the report.

THE REPORT: The report is prepared by the US Department of State and submitted each year to the US Congress it is retrospective in nature and contains a country-wise discussion of the state of the internationally recognised individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT

ARBITRARY ARREST AND DETENTION: Indian law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention but both occurred during the year, with police using “special security laws to postpone judicial reviews of arrests. Pre-trial detention was arbitrary and lengthy, sometimes even exceeding the duration of the sentence given to those convicted.

VIOLATIONS OF PRIVACY: Citing media reports on journalists being targeted for surveillance through the Pegasus malware, the report flagged violations of privacy by government authorities, including the use of technology to arbitrarily or unlawfully surveil or interfere with the privacy of individuals.

CURBS ON FREE EXPRESSION AND MEDIA: The report highlighted instances in which the government or actors considered close to the government allegedly pressured or harassed media outlets critical of the government, including through online trolling. It detailed the government’s order of February-2021 directing Twitter to block accounts of journalists covering protests against the three (later repealed) farm laws.

ON FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: The report highlighted the cases of Amnesty International India, whose assets were frozen by the Enforcement Directorate, and the suspension of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) license of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) for alleged violations.

THE REPORT AND THE PRESS FREEDOM IN INDIA

• The report systematically lists cases where freedom of the press was endangered by government and non-government actors.
• The report noted that international watchdogs including Freedom House and Human Rights Watch had also documented a downslide in India’s application of democratic rights for the media and an increase in continuous harassment.
• There were also cases, especially in states, of journalists being killed or targeted by vested interests due to their professional work, it says.
• In June 2021, a journalist for the newspaper Kampu Mail was killed by two gunmen in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly for his investigative reports into illegal sand mining.
• The UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay had also taken cognizance and asked authorities to end “gunpoint censorship”.
• The report also mentions the arrest of comedian Munawar Faruqui and four other persons for allegedly offending religious sentiments with jokes that he did not even deliver but planned to perform.
• The report also noted that the World Press Freedom Index 2021 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described India as “very dangerous for journalists” with the rank of 142 among 180 countries.
• Further, the report listed that government officials at both local and national levels were involved in “intimidating critical media outlets through physical harassment and attacks, pressuring owners, targeting sponsors, encouraging frivolous lawsuits, and in some areas blocking communication services, such as mobile telephones and the internet, and constraining freedom of movement”.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE REPORT

• Citing media reports on journalists being targeted for surveillance through the Pegasus malware, the report flagged violations of privacy by government authorities. The report was also critical of the government’s involvement in allegedly pressuring or harassing the media outlets critical of the government while noting that the government generally respected the right to freedom of expression.
• Though there are instances of the alleged government pressure on the media houses and even there have been circumstances that warrant courts cautioning the media about the manner of its reportage. However, the general view is that the public has a right to know and it is the duty of the media to disseminate the information. The court in various instances took cognizance of the media reports and directed the state machinery to do the needful.
• The USA is entitled to have views; India also posted its strongest repudiation against America for constantly pontificating on human rights and press freedom.

PRESS FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

MAKING GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE: Free Media makes people question the decisions of the government and make it accountable. It conveys the people’s needs and desires to government bodies, making informed decisions and strengthening society as a result.

VOICE OF THE MARGINALISED: The free media by being the voice of the masses empowers them with the right to express opinions.

FREE EXCHANGE OF IDEAS: A free exchange of ideas, free exchange of information and knowledge, debating, and expression of different viewpoints are important for the smooth functioning of democracy. A free press can inform citizens of their leaders’ successes or failures.

FOURTH PILLAR OF DEMOCRACY: Due to these attributes, the Media can be rightly considered as the fourth pillar of democracy, the other three being legislature, executive, and judiciary.

THREATS TO FREEDOM OF PRESS

BIASED MEDIA: Corporate and political power has overwhelmed large sections of the media, both print and visual, which leads to vested interests and destroys freedom.

FAKE NEWS: The government’s pressure in the name of regulations, the bombardment of fake news, and the influence of social media are dangerous for the occupation.

PAID NEWS: Corruption-paid news, advertorials, and fake news are threats to free and unbiased media.

ATTACK AGAINST JOURNALISTS: The security of journalists is the biggest issue, killings, and assaults on Journalists covering sensitive issues are very common. Reports such as ‘Freedom in the World 2021 (Freedom House, US)’, ‘2020 Human Rights Report (US State Department)’, and ‘Autocratisation Goes Viral (V-Dem Institute, Sweden)’ have all highlighted the intimidation of journalists in India.

CENSORSHIP BY THE STATE:

• The political leaders encourage censorship of media. Various efforts are made to control and contain media through stringent norms and regulations.
• The IT Rules 2021 force digital news publishers and video streaming services to adhere to a three-tier structure of regulation. It will have a government committee at its apex. It is feared that the new rules will have implications for freedom of expression and the right to information as:
• I&B Ministry is entrusted to formulate an oversight mechanism and establish an inter-departmental committee for hearing grievances. This body will also have censorship and blocking powers.
• The regulation will be done by a body composed of bureaucrats who might perform discretionary censorship thereby enhancing political control.

SEDITION LAW: Arbitrary use Section 124A of IPC under which sedition is punishable by life imprisonment endangers the freedom of journalists. This leads to fear among journalists to work freely.

POLITICAL INFLUENCE: Corporate and political power has overwhelmed large sections of the media, both print and visual, which leads to the promotion of biased views and vested interests thereby harming the very nature and mandate of free journalism.

HOW JUSTIFIED ARE THE OBSERVATIONS MADE IN THE REPORT?

ARTICLE 19 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA: The Indian Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression under Article 19, which deals with ‘Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc. Freedom of the press is not expressly protected by the Indian legal system but it is implicitly protected under article 19(1)(a) of the constitution. However, Freedom of the press is also not absolute. A law could impose reasonable restrictions on the exercise of this right explicitly mentioned under Article 19(2).

ROMESH THAPPAR v. STATE OF MADRAS, 1950: The Supreme Court observed that freedom of the press lay at the foundation of all democratic organisations and was of the opinion that Constitution framers choose to not include the word “Sedition” in Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India which shows that “criticism of Government, exciting disaffection or bad feelings towards it, is not to be regarded as a justifying ground for restricting the freedom of expression and of the press unless it is such as to undermine the security of or tend to overthrow the State.”

VINOD DUA v. UNION OF INDIA: The Supreme Court said that “Every journalist is entitled to the protection under the Kedar Nath Singh case (which defined the ambit of the offence of sedition under Section 124A IPC).”

• In Kedar Nath Singh (1962), five judges of the Supreme Court made it clear that “allegedly seditious speech and expression may be punished only if the speech is an ‘incitement’ to ‘violence’, or ‘public disorder’”.

SELF REGULATION AND MEDIA ETHICS:

• Media in India is free and self-regulated with no state interference.
• The concept of Self-regulation is a voluntary act on the part of an individual media professional as well as a media organisation. It is not imposed by any external agency therefore it carries more credibility in the eyes of the public.
• Self-regulation ensures that the media can operate independently which is in the interest of the media as well as its different stakeholders and the audience.
• To facilitate ethical conduct, a number of self-regulatory mechanisms exist for the Indian media such as codes of ethics and the Press Council of India.
• Organisations like News Broadcasters Standards Authority (NBSA) and Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) have been set up as an internal self-regulatory mechanism for television (news and entertainment) respectively.

VIBRANT DIGITAL NEWS ECOSYSTEM:

• In the past few years, India has witnessed a plethora of vibrant online news broadcasting organisations. With the public looking beyond mainstream media for reports from the ground, independent digital platforms are emerging as a source of credible news.
• While digital media has helped amplify local issues and movements, its emergence has also turned the lens on issues concerning vulnerable communities, remote regions, and the environment, subjects that many sections of the mainstream media might have maintained a distance from.

JUDICIARY TO THE RESCUE

• In April 2022, the Delhi High Court quashed the lookout circular issued by the Enforcement Directorate against journalist Rana Ayyub on the ground of it being devoid of merits as well as infringing her human right to travel abroad and freedom of speech and expression.
• In March 2022, the Supreme Court stayed the Central government’s decision to revoke the security clearance of Kerala-based news and current affairs TV channel Media One “on the basis of intelligence inputs which are sensitive and secretive in nature”.

THE WAY FORWARD

• Legislation: Similar to the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020 which provides protection to the healthcare service personnel from the ‘act of violence, and the Whistleblower Protection Act, 2014 which provides adequate safeguards against victimization of the person making such complaints, the country needs a more detailed law regarding the media to protect not only the freedom of expression and speech but also journalists’ safety.
• Better regulation: Efforts must be made to enable regulations that would lower the barriers to media ownership and reduce the concentration of media ownership.
• Strengthening the justice system: Strengthening the courts, the police, the justice system, and the rule of law is important to provide adequate protection for journalists.
• Incentivization: Government must Institute awards and other forms of recognition for excellence in watchdog reporting.
• Independent agencies: There is a need to establish independent press councils; media watch groups, ombudsmen, and other media self‐regulatory bodies autonomous from the government.
• International Reports: Reports from international watchdogs such as Freedom House and Human Rights Watch shall also be used as a mirror to reflect upon the lacunas and failures and not just a reason for rebuke.

THE CONCLUSION: The Indian government has emphasised that the Indian Constitution provides for adequate safeguards under various statutes for ensuring the protection of free voice even for journalists. Expressing disaffection or bad feelings towards the government is not to be regarded as a justifying ground for restricting the freedom of expression and of the press. Furthermore, the media houses and journalists should also be mindful of the manner of their reportage in their duty to disseminate the information.

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTIONS:

1. “Various reports have highlighted the intimidation of journalists in India and India’s ranking on various indices such as World Press Freedom Index has been falling in past few years.” Elaborate on the reasons for the same and suggest measures to strengthen the freedom of the fourth pillar of democracy.
2. “US-India relations share strength and comfort level to deal with differences even if the two sides may not agree on all issues.” Examine-in context of Country Reports on Human Rights, 2021.

THE CONTEXT: In April 2022, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) presented a Performance Audit Report on ‘Functioning of Unique Identification Authority of India’. This Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India contains significant observations and recommendations emanating out of the Performance Audit conducted on ‘Functioning of Unique Identification Authority of India’.

This article explains the findings and recommendations by the comptroller and Auditor General of India in its recent report.

KEY POINTS ABOUT THE AUDIT REPORT

• The Performance Audit included an assessment of the Enrollment and Update Ecosystems as well as the Authentication Ecosystems of the UIDAI for the period from 2014-15 to 2018-19.
• Audit scrutinized the processes beginning right from the enrollment up to the delivery of Aadhaar number and subsequent use of the authentication services.
• The systems put in place for maintaining security and confidentiality of data were also subject to audit examination.

About Unique Identification Authority of India

• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is a statutory authority established under the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (“Aadhaar Act 2016”) on 12 July 2016 by the Government of India, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
• Purpose: UIDAI was created to issue Unique Identification numbers (UID), named “Aadhaar”, to all residents of India.
• The UID had to be:
• robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities, and
• verifiable and authenticable in an easy, cost-effective way.
• As of 31 October 2021, the Authority has issued 131.68 crore Aadhaar numbers to the residents of India.
• Under the Aadhaar Act 2016, UIDAI is responsible for Aadhaar enrollment and authentication, including operation and management of all stages of the Aadhaar life cycle, developing the policy, procedure, and system for issuing Aadhaar numbers to individuals, and performing authentication and the security of identity information and authentication records of individuals.

UNDERSTANDING THE KEY FINDINGS OF THE REPORT

NO DOCUMENTS FOR PROOF OF RESIDENCY:

• The Aadhaar Act stipulates that an individual should reside in India for 182 days or more in the twelve months immediately preceding the date of application for being eligible to obtain an Aadhaar.
• In September 2019, this condition was relaxed for non-resident Indians holding valid Indian Passport. However, UIDAI has not prescribed any specific proof/ document or process for confirming whether an applicant has resided in India for the specified period and takes confirmation of the residential status through a casual self-declaration from the applicant.
• There was no system in place to check the affirmations of the applicant. As such, there is no assurance that all the Aadhaar holders in the country are ‘Residents’ as defined in the Aadhaar Act.

DE-DUPLICATION PROBLEM:

• The uniqueness of the identity of the applicant, established through a de-duplication process, is the most important feature of Aadhaar.
• It was seen that UIDAI had to cancel more than 4.75 lakh Aadhaars (November 2019) for being duplicates.
• There were instances of issues of Aadhaars with the same biometric data to different residents indicating flaws in the de-duplication process and issues of Aadhaars on faulty biometrics and documents.
• Though UIDAI has taken action to improve the quality of the biometrics and has also introduced iris-based authentication features for enrollment for Aadhaar, the database continued to have faulty Aadhaars, which were already issued.

ISSUE OF AADHAAR NUMBERS TO MINOR CHILDREN:

• Issue of Aadhaar numbers to minor children below the age of five, based on the biometrics of their parents, without confirming the uniqueness of biometric identity goes against the basic tenet of the Aadhaar Act.
• Apart from being violative of the statutory provisions, the UIDAI has also incurred an avoidable expenditure of ₹310 Crore on the issue of Bal Aadhaars till 31 March 2019.
• The UIDAI needs to review the issue of Aadhaar to minor children below five years and find alternate ways to establish their unique identity, especially since the Supreme Court has stated that no benefit will be denied to any child for want of an Aadhaar document.

DEFICIENT DATA MANAGEMENT:

• All Aadhaar numbers were not paired with the documents relating to the personal information of their holders, and even after nearly ten years, the UIDAI could not identify the exact extent of the mismatch.
• Though with the introduction of online scanning (July 2016), the personal information documents were stored in CIDR, which stands for (Classless Inter-Domain Routing)the existence of unpaired biometric data from an earlier period indicated deficient data management.

NO DATA ARCHIVING POLICY:

• UIDAI maintains one of the largest biometric databases in the world; but does not have a data archiving policy, which is considered to be a vital storage management best practice.

LACK OF MONITORING SYSTEM:

• UIDAI had not effectively monitored funds released to States as Grants-in-Aid towards ICT assistance for creating infrastructure.

ISSUES IN THE GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL SYSTEM:

• The process of capturing grievances/complaints have not been streamlined and does not display a clear picture for analysis.
• The complaints lodged at the RO (Registered Organizations) level did not get the attention of UIDAI HQ, compromising the effectiveness of the grievance redressal mechanism, besides the delays in the settlement of grievances.

INEFFECTIVE DELIVERY SYSTEM:

• UIDAI’s arrangements with the Department of Posts were not adequate to guarantee delivery of Aadhaar letters to the right addressee, as seen from the large number of Aadhaar letters being returned as undelivered.

RECOMMENDATIONS BY COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL OF INDIA

PRESCRIBE A PROCEDURE FOR SELF-DECLARATION:

• UIDAI may prescribe a procedure and required documentation other than self-declaration in order to confirm and authenticate the residence status of applicants, in line with the provisions of the Aadhaar Act.

TIGHTEN THE Service Level Agreements (SLA) PARAMETERS OF BIOMETRIC SERVICE PROVIDERS (BSPS):

• UIDAI may tighten the Service Level Agreements (SLA) parameters of Biometric Service Providers (BSPs), devise foolproof mechanisms for capturing unique biometric data, and improve upon their monitoring systems to proactively identify and take action to minimize multiple/ duplicate Aadhaar numbers generated.
• UIDAI may also review a regular updation of technology.
• UIDAI also needs to strengthen the Automated Biometric Identification System so that generation of multiple/duplicate Aadhaars can be curbed at the initial stage itself.

EXPLORE ALTERNATE WAYS TO CAPTURE THE UNIQUENESS OF BIOMETRIC IDENTITY FOR MINORS:

• UIDAI may explore alternate ways to capture the uniqueness of biometric identity for minor children below five years since uniqueness of identity is the most distinctive feature of Aadhaar established through biometrics of the individual.

REVIEW CHARGING OF FEES FOR VOLUNTARY UPDATES:

• UIDAI may review the charging of fees for the voluntary update of residents’ biometrics since they (UIDAI) were not in a position to identify reasons for biometric failures and residents were not at fault for the capture of poor quality of biometrics.

FRAME A SUITABLE DATA ARCHIVAL POLICY:

• UIDAI may frame a suitable data archival policy to mitigate the risk of vulnerability to data protection and reduce the saturation of valuable data space due to redundant and unwanted data by continuously weeding out unwanted data.

LEVYING PENALTIES:

• UIDAI may levy penalties on Biometric Service Providers for deficiencies in their performance in respect of biometric de-duplication and biometric authentication. Agreements in this regard should be modified if required.

OTHERS:

• Reducing dependence on other agencies for support.
• Improvement in the financial management of grants.
• Introducing a single centralized system for grievance redressal.

 THE WAY FORWARD

• UIDAI should immediately take steps as per the recommendation suggested in the CAG report.
• The Public Account Committee should also examine the functioning of the UIDAI in the highlight of the CAG report. Public Account Committee can provide further recommendations for improvement of its working.
• UIDAI should adhere to the principles of the RTI and put the information suo-moto in the public domain. This will generate an element of accountability and improvement for the agency.
• As the Aadhaar ecosystem is being used for multiple purposes. The agencies should scale up and streamline their infrastructural capacity to meet the increasing requirements.

THE CONCLUSION: Aadhaar is a revolutionary tool that promises to transform our country’s governance, and UIDAI has a significant role in it provided that the emerging issues need to be taken care of and confidence is built among citizens. Although UIDAI is playing its crucial role the recent report of CAG and the issues highlighted need to be addressed for an effective delivery system and gaining the trust of citizens.

Questions for Mains:

1. Discuss the issues highlighted in the Performance Audit Report of CAG ‘Functioning of Unique Identification Authority of India’. Suggest effective measures to resolve these issues.
2. Aadhaar is a revolutionary tool that promises to transform our country’s governance and UIDAI has a significant role in it provided the problems in its functioning are addressed. Explain.

ADD TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE

CIDR– CIDR stands for Classless Inter-Domain Routing. It is an IP address assigning method that improves the efficiency of address distribution. It is also known as super netting replaces the older system based on classes A, B, and C networks. By using a single CIDR IP address many unique IP addresses can be designated.

THE CONTEXT: The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, was enacted by Parliament on April 6 to replace the Identification of Prisoners Act of 1920. The new law empowers police and investigating agencies to acquire and keep personally-identifying information on individuals, such as bio-metrics and biological samples. The Bill, which was introduced on March 28, was quickly passed by both houses. However, various segments of society have expressed worry about the implications for privacy rights. This article examines the issue in detail.

Note: on 18^th April 2022 the President has given assent to the Bill.

KEY FEATURES OF THE BILL

• The Bill expands:
• the type of data that may be collected,
• the persons from whom such data may be collected, and
• the authority that may authorize such collection.
• It also provides for the data to be stored in a central database. Under both the 1920 Act and the 2022 Bill, resistance or refusal to give data will be considered an offence of obstructing a public servant from doing his duty. Table 1 compares provisions of the 2022 Bill with the 1920 Act.
• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will be the central agency to maintain the records. It will share the data with law enforcement agencies. Further, states/UTs may notify agencies to collect, preserve, and share data in their respective jurisdictions.
• The data collected will be retained in digital or electronic form for 75 years.   Records will be destroyed in case of acquitted persons after all appeals or released without trial.   However, in such cases, a Court or Magistrate may direct the retention of details after recording reasons in writing.

COMPARISON OF KEY PROVISIONS OF THE 1920 ACT AND THE 2022 BILL

WHAT IS THE NEED FOR THE BILL?

CAN YOU BE COMPELLED TO GIVE YOUR MEASUREMENTS?

The scope of consent is one of the most criticized aspects of the Bill. Under Clause 3 of the Bill, a person may be required to give his measurements. The persons discussed under the said clause may be compelled to give their measurements. The proviso to Clause 3 clearly provides that a person may not be obliged to give biological samples until and unless he has been arrested or convicted for an offence against a woman or child or an offence punishable with more than seven years of imprisonment. Therefore, in simple terms, any person who is arrested for an offence that does not involve women or children and is punishable with imprisonment of less than 7 years, then such person can be compelled to provide all other measurements, excluding biological measurements. The scheme of the Bill is such that a person may be compelled to give his measurements. As per Clause 6 (2) of the Bill, in case a person refuses or resists providing the measurements, then he would be deemed to commit an offence under Section 186 IPC.

 WHAT ARE THE ISSUES INVOLVED IN THE BILL?

FAILS THE TEST OF ARTICLE 14:

• The object of the Bill is to use modern technology and make the criminal justice system more effective.
• Only those arrested for offences punishable by 7 years or more, or those arrested for offences against a woman or a child may be compelled to give their biological samples,
• But all arrested persons may be compelled to give measurements other than biological samples.
• This classification bears no rational nexus to making investigations more efficient.
• Moreover, there lies no option of consent with the person; hence it is nothing but manifestly arbitrary.

VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 20(3):

• As per Article 20(3), one cannot be compelled to be a witness against himself.
• A bare reading of the Bill makes it clear that the measurements of the person may be recorded and be used against him at his trial.
• Hence, the provisions of the Bill will be hit by Article 20 (3)

VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 21:

• In order for the Bill to stand the test of judicial review, it must satisfy the fourfold requirement of the doctrine of proportionality laid down in Justice KS Puttaswamy v Union of India^.
• While the Bill has the legitimate aim of improving the investigation, detection, and prevention of crimes, it fails to satisfy the other three requirements, namely, suitability, necessity and balancing.

ABUSE OF POWERS CONFERRED:

• It may be seen that the Bill provides for a police officer or prison officer above the rank of head constable or head warder to collect measurements, which is excessive and may lead to abuse of power and rampant corruption.

TIME PERIOD FOR WHICH THE DATA IS COLLECTED:

• The Bill aims to preserve the records of measurements for a period of 75 years from the date of collection of such samples.
• Hence, it lacks reason and is arbitrary.

AMBIGUOUS DEFINITION:

• The definition of “measurements” is very “ambiguous and nebulous”. Whether brain mapping and narco analysis will be used as part of “biological samples and their analysis” is not spelt out.

CREATION OF A POLICE STATE:

• Opposition MPs have said that they are not opposed to police reforms or modernization of police forces but to certain provisions of the Bill.
• Observing that a head constable can prepare one’s complete identification profile under the new law, they said, whether the government wants to make India a police state”.

NO DATA PROTECTION LAW:

• The law would be introduced without a data protection law, which India so desperately needs and in the absence of such a law, there is the likelihood of its misuse and abuse.

CONSTITUTIONALITY OF COLLECTING BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES OR OTHER MEASUREMENTS FOR FACILITATING INVESTIGATION

The Supreme Court of India held in State of Bombay vs Kathi Kalu in 1961 that the expression “to be a witness” under Articles 20(3) of the Constitution does not include a person in custody giving his specimen handwriting or signature or impression of his thumb, finger, palm, or foot to the investigating officer. Similarly, it has been held in a slew of cases that taking a blood sample for a DNA test, a hair sample, or a voice sample will not amount to compelling an accused to become a witness against himself. This is because such samples are harmless and do not convey information within the accused’s personal knowledge. As a result, the legality of taking biological samples or other measurements to aid investigation has long been established. The only exceptions are scientific techniques, namely narcoanalysis, polygraphy and brain fingerprinting which the Supreme Court in Selvi vs State of Karnataka (2010) held to be testimonial compulsions (if conducted without consent), and thus prohibited under Article 20(3) of the Constitution.

WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD?

REMOVING THE AMBIGUITIES:

• Under what circumstances can a cop be allowed or denied access to this database?
• What are the permissible uses of this database?
• What punishment happens if a police officer uses this database in violation of extant law?
• All these issues need clarity, and the government must provide it through rules.

IMPROVE INVESTIGATION:

• For a civilized and advanced society to be developed and maintained, a civilized and sophisticated police force is quite essential.
• Therefore, emphasis should be made in this on capacity building, including experts in forensics at the police station level itself.

PROTECTION FOR JUVENILES:

• Though the Act does not explicitly bar taking measurements of juveniles, the provisions of the (Special Act) Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 regarding the destruction of records of conviction under the Act shall apply.
• However, it is desirable to include a provision for juveniles in the Act to
• provide clarity and eliminate any uncertainties

PREVENT POLITICAL WITCH-HUNT:

• The law should not become a tool for political “witch-hunt”.
• DNA profiling also should be used purely for serious crimes and for counter-terrorism purposes only.

REASONABLE PERIOD OF DATA STORAGE:

• The storage time for adult measurements could have been conveniently lowered by ten years, as the likelihood of any person committing a crime after the age of 80 is negligible.
• According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB Crime )’s in India–2020 figures, the number of arrested people above the age of 60 is less than 1.5 per cent.

JUDICIAL DETERMINATION:

• The Act has been challenged in Delhi High Court, and an early judicial pronouncement can address many of the contentious issues.

DATA PROTECTION LAW:

• Early enactment of a comprehensive data protection law is required.

THE CONCLUSION: No society, including ours, is flawless. Our social consciousness is riddled with deeply entrenched biases and preconceptions. Our police force is a product of its social environment, and as a result, it is far from ideal. That does not preclude us from providing it with the necessary powers and instruments. There is an undeniable necessity to strike a balance between respecting an individual’s privacy while also providing law enforcement with the tools they require to keep us safe.

QUESTIONS:

1. Critically examine the provisions of the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022.
2. 2.” For a civilized and advanced society to be developed and maintained, a civilized and sophisticated police force is quite essential”. Examine the statement in the light of issues surrounding the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022.
3. Can we say that right to privacy should be subjected to the right to safety? Argue.

THE CONTEXT: In December 2021, six students at Udupi Women’s PU College, Karnataka, staged a protest for weeks after college authorities refused to let them sit in classrooms wearing hijabs. After approaching the district commissioner, and education department officials, the girls have petitioned the Karnataka High Court (HC) seeking relief. But the HC ruled against them. This whole saga of events has thrown up very pertinent questions on the right to education, the right to religion, and the courts’ role in adjudicating such cases. In this article, we examine these issues in detail.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE HIJAB?

Hijab, niqab, and burka are different kinds of coverings worn by Muslim women worldwide. Some women wear a headscarf to cover their head and hair, while others wear a burka or niqab, which also covers up their face. Headscarves are seen as a sign of modesty by people who wear them and a symbol of religious faith, but not everyone agrees with them and in some countries, like France and Denmark, there’s a ban on wearing garments that cover the face in public. The word hijab describes the act of covering up generally but is often used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women. These scarves come in many styles and colours. The type most commonly worn in the West covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.

NOTE: The description given above is only for a general understanding of the students and in no manner is an authoritative exposition.

A TIMELINE OF THE ROW OVER WEARING THE HIJAB

28 DECEMBER 2021:

• Girl students started protesting against the refusal of college authorities to allow them to sit in the classrooms wearing hijab.
• The college authorities claimed that it had prescribed a uniform and no other religious attire is permissible to be worn along with the uniform.

3 JANUARY 2022:

• Hindu students of the Government First Grade College in Koppa, Chikmagalur, which also has a uniform and a dress code, staged a sit-in protest sporting saffron scarves.
• Their demand was also to allow them to wear saffron scarves if Muslim girl students were allowed to wear hijabs.

6 JANUARY 2022:

• Similar scenes were witnessed in Pompei college of Mangalore.
• The Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.C. Nagesh had said the state was mulling a uniform dress code.

31 JANUARY 2022:

• The issue flared up after Udupi Women’s PU college students approached the HC seeking interim relief to attend classes wearing hijab.
• Meanwhile, the Karnataka government asked all government colleges and schools to maintain the status quo until the government committee came up with a recommendation on the dress code.

2 FEBRUARY 2022:

• Kundapur Government PU college shut its gates to students wearing hijab after Hindu students wore saffron scarves.
• Videos of the girl students pleading with the principal to let them attend classes went viral.

3 FEBRUARY 2022:

• The protests spread to another college in Kundapur. Bhandarkar’s Arts and Science College forced the college management to shut the gates on students sporting hijab as well as saffron scarves.

5 FEBRUARY 2022:

• In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 133(2) of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, the govt ordered that:
• Students of all government schools to wear the uniform fixed by the state.
• Students of private schools may wear uniforms prescribed by the management committees of the school.
• In colleges that fall under the Karnataka Board of Pre-University Education, the dress code prescribed by the College Development Committee, or the administrative supervisory committee must be followed.
• If the administration does not fix a dress code, clothes that do not threaten equality, unity, and public order must be worn.

14 MARCH 2022:

• The court upheld the legality of the Karnataka Government’s February 5 order prescribing wearing of uniforms in schools and pre-university colleges under provisions of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983.

AT PRESENT:

• The verdict has been appealed to the SC by the original petitioners and others although the SC has not begun hearing it yet.

DECODING THE RIGHT TO WEAR A HIJAB

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS:

• Hijab (headscarf) is a Fundamental Right guaranteed under Articles 14 and 25 of the Constitution of India and is an essential practice of Islam.
• Shariah mandates women to wear the headscarf and therefore, the action of the college in banning the headscarf within the premise of the college is repugnant to the protection of religious freedom as provided under Article 25 (1).

UNREASONABLE RESTRICTIONS:

• The Constitution of India guarantees the Freedom of Conscience and the right to profess, practice, and propagate religion while reserving the state’s right to interfere with the religious matter only if it involves an issue relating to public order, morality, and health.
• In this light, it is contended that banning the hijab can only be done by invoking an interest of public order or the morals of the society. However, that is not the case here.

IMPACT ON MENTAL HEALTH AND FUTURE PROSPECTS:

• The manner in which the respondent college has ousted the petitioner not only creates a stigma amongst her batch mates but among the children of the entire college, which in turn will affect the mental health as well as future prospects of the petitioner.

DENIAL OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION:

• The college has curtailed the right to education of the petitioner on the sole ground of religion is smacked with malfides, discriminatory, and politically motivated.
• By doing so the state government has failed in its duty to realise the right to human development by denying the petitioner her education.

ESSENTIAL RELIGIOUS PRACTICE:

• The plea refers to verses from the Holy Quran and states that taking away the practice of wearing the hijab from women who profess the Islamic faith, results in a fundamental change in the character of the Islamic religion.
• For this reason, the practice of wearing the hijab constitutes as an essential and integral part of Islam.
• In the case of Hindu Religious Endowments, Madras v. Sri. Lakshmindra Thirtha Swamiar of Sri. Shirur Mutt (1954 SCR 1005), where the Supreme Court has held that Freedom of Religion in our Constitution is not confined to religious beliefs only; it extends to religious practices also.

CHOICE OF DRESS:

• It is argued that the right of women to have the choice of dress based on religious injunctions is a fundamental right protected under Article 25 (1) when such prescription of dress is an essential part of the religion.

HIJAB AND THE WORLD

• Canada: After a long battle, the Canadian government decided not to pursue a ban on wearing the hijab during immigration ceremonies.
• France: French mayors have banned full-body swimsuits known as “burkinis” from beaches, citing public order concerns.
• United States: Women in hijab represent the United States in government, business, and sports.
• Iran: Women are required to wear hijab, although what constitutes “proper hijab” is widely debated.
• Turkey: Hijab may be part of a police officer’s uniform, although it is not required.

WHAT WAS THE ARGUMENT OF THE STATE OF KARNATAKA?

LEGISLATIVE BACKING:

• As per Section 7 of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, students of all educational institutions shall behave as one family, without restricting themselves to one class of persons, jointly maintaining and upholding public order.
• Under Section 133 of the Act, the government reserves the right to issue appropriate directions to schools and colleges to ensure the maintenance of public order.

POWER OF SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE:

• Development Committees of all schools and colleges have been created to make proper use of government grants, improve basic infrastructure and facilities, and maintain the quality of education.
• Schools and colleges are directed to operate as per the decisions of the development committees.

ADVERSE EFFECTS ON EQUALITY:

• The Department of Education, Karnataka, came to know that in some institutions, students are following practices as per their religion, which is adversely affecting equality in such schools and colleges.

JUDICIAL ORDERS:

• The Apex Court in Asha Renjan & Ors v State of Bihar 2017 accepted the balance test when competing rights are involved and has taken the view that individual interest must yield to the larger public interest.
• Thus, conflict over competing rights can be resolved not by negating individual rights but by upholding larger rights to remain, to hold such relationships between institutions and students.
• In Fathima Hussain Sayed v Bharat Education Society & Ors a similar issue pertaining to dress codes arose in Karthik English School, Mumbai. After investigating the issue, the Bombay High Court held that the petitioner’s (school Principal’s) restriction on wearing a headscarf or covering one’s head is not violative of Article 25 of the Constitution.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE HIGH COURT VERDICT

The court upheld the legality of the Karnataka Government’s February 5 order prescribing wearing of uniforms in schools and pre-university colleges under provisions of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983. The court ruled that prescription of school uniforms does not violate either the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1) (a) or the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. The restriction against wearing of hijab in educational institutions is only a reasonable restriction constitutionally permissible, which the students cannot object to. Wearing the hijab (headscarf) by Muslim women does not form a part of essential religious practices in the Islamic faith and it is not protected under the right to freedom of religion guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution of India. The bench, in its interim order passed on February 10, restrained all students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron shawls (bhagwa), scarfs, hijab, religious flags, or the like in classrooms until further orders on the petitions.

A CRITIQUE OF THE HC JUDGMENT

ESSENTIAL RELIGIOUS PRACTICE: 

• The court finds that the petitioners have failed to prove that wearing the hijab is essential to Islam – i.e., that it is mandatory, non-optional, and that Islam would lose its identity if women did not wear the hijab.
• Neither the court nor external commentators, are particularly well-placed to conduct this analysis.

FRAMING THE WRONG QUESTION:

• It effectively denies to Muslim women the ability to frame their argument as one of religious choice and requires, instead, for them to argue in the language of religious compulsion.

THE TEST OF PROPORTIONALITY:

• Proportionality requires, among other things, that the state adopt the least restrictive method in order to achieve its goals. Thus, where something less than a ban would suffice, a ban is disproportionate.

IGNORING PRECEDENT:

• It is pertinent to note that the petitioners had placed heavy reliance on a Madras High Court judgment (M Ajmal Khan vs Election Commission).
• The Madras High Court had observed, “… thus, seen from the reported material that there is almost unanimity amongst Muslim scholars that purdah is not essential but covering of head by scarf is obligatory”.
• However, quite shockingly, there is absolutely no discussion of the said Madras High Court judgment in the hijab verdict.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION:

• Reasonable accommodation requires the court to ask whether, in a setting where a certain default exists, a particular claim for departing from that default, founded in constitutional rights, can be reasonably accommodated by the state (or private party), without the activity in question losing its character.
• In the case of the hijab, the claim for reasonable accommodation is straightforward: that the wearing of the hijab (especially hijab that is the same colour as the uniform and is simply draped, like a shawl, over the head) can be reasonably accommodated alongside the uniform, without damaging or in other ways vitiating the overall public goal of education.

FAILURE TO RECOGNISE INDIRECT DISCRIMINATION:

• Facially neutral criteria of uniform dress code flies in the face of established discrimination law jurisprudence in the country, especially that of indirect discrimination which the Supreme Court of India has recognised.
• The court has failed to recognise that facially neutral criteria are capable of having a disproportionate impact on a particular community or group of individuals.

UNIFORM AS THE GOAL: 

• The court has been weighed down by the role of uniform instead of seeing education as an end goal.
• The court’s crucial error is that it sanctifies the uniform instead of sanctifying education.
• Instead of looking at the uniform as instrumental to achieving the goal of an inclusive and egalitarian right, it treats the uniform (and its associated values of sameness, homogeneity, etc) as the goal itself.

THE HIJAB AND WOMEN’S AGENCY

• To view the hijab as a contest between men and women, oppression and freedom, patriarchy and liberation is to reduce hijab-wearing women to their immediate identities of victims of patriarchy, denying them their agency and, therefore, viewing the world through a narrow dichotomy.
• We must acknowledge that feminine agency negotiates a matrix of power — whether it is caste, class, or community. The recent attack on the hijab cannot be seen in isolation but as part of the larger global politics starting from 9/11 when symbolic representations of Muslim identity in public were complicated by certain countries in Europe legislating to ban the hijab in state-run institutions, including schools.
• The representation of Islamic norms as incompatible with modern secularism led not just to a ban of the hijab but also the burkini. But symbols of the Christian religion continued to be worn publicly without being challenged. Similarly, In India, where the hijab is being attacked for disrupting the ‘uniform style of clothes’, no other religious symbols displayed on the body are being questioned.

THE WAY FORWARD

ROLE OF THE SC: The SC should hear the matter at the earliest and provide for an authoritative pronouncement.

ROLE OF THE GOVTS: The role of the union and state governments is very important here as they are the agencies responsible for implementing governance as per the Constitution. They should not support any act against the Constitution and particularly that which serves the agenda of fundamentalist forces.

A SENSITIVE APPROACH: The Karnataka government and college administration should have handled the issue in a more conciliatory and sensitive way so as to ensure the continuation of the education of these girls rather than confronting them in this way.

ROLE OF SECULAR AND DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT: The secular and democratic movements and political parties are seen to be stuck on symbolic issues. Instead, they need to have a broader development agenda for marginalised minorities.

RECONCILIATION OF RELIGION AND EDUCATION: The hijab controversy had become a site of contest between religion and education, community, and the system. “Muslim girls are increasingly opting for higher education. But with these developments, there may be a setback with girls withdrawing from modern secular education. This must be addressed.

THE CONCLUSION: In its 1994 judgment in the S.R Bommai case 1994, the Supreme Court observed that “religious freedom is the hallmark of pluralism and inclusiveness. It is meant to advance social harmony and diversity”. This must be the spirit in which the whole issue should be understood, debated, and logically concluded.

Questions:

1. Critically examine the judgment of the Karnataka High Court with respect to the ban on hijab in educational institutions.
2. Facially neutral criteria of uniform dress code flies in the face of established discrimination law jurisprudence in the country, especially that of indirect discrimination which the Supreme Court of India has recognised. Comment

ADD TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE

THE FUNCTION OF THE COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

1. Prepare an overall comprehensive development plan for the college regarding academic, administrative, and infrastructural growth, and enable the college to foster excellence in curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities.
2. Decide about the overall teaching programmes or annual calendar of the college.
3. Recommend to the management about introducing new academic courses and the creation of additional teaching and administrative posts.
4. Take a review of the self-financing courses in the college, if any, and make recommendations for their improvement.
5. Make specific recommendations to the management to encourage and strengthen research culture, consultancy, and extension activities in the college.
6. Make specific recommendations to the management to foster academic collaborations to strengthen teaching and research.
7. Make specific recommendations to the management to encourage the use of information and communication technology in the teaching and learning process.
8. Make specific recommendations regarding the improvement in teaching and suitable training programmes for the employees of the college.
9. Prepare the annual financial estimates (budget) and financial statements of the college or institution and recommend the same to the management for approval.
10. Formulate proposals of new expenditure not provided for in the annual financial estimates (budget).
11. Make recommendations regarding the students’ and employees’ welfare activities in the college or institution.
12. Discuss the reports of the internal quality assurance committee and make suitable recommendations.
13. Frame suitable admissions procedures for different programmes by following the statutory norms.
14. Plan major annual events in the college, such as annual day, sports events, cultural events, etc.
15. Recommend to the administration appropriate steps to be taken regarding the discipline, safety, and security issues of the college or institution.
16. Consider and make appropriate recommendations on inspection reports, local inquiry reports, audit reports, reports of national assessment and accreditation council, etc.
17. Recommend the distribution of different prizes, medals, and awards to the students.
18. Prepare the annual report on the work done by the committee for the year ending on the 30th of June and submit the same to the management of such college and the university.

THE CONTEXT: India promised to install 100 gigawatts of solar power by 2022. But the country will not be able to deliver on this climate pledge. According to a new report, India will miss this target by 27%. Also, India is likely to miss its solar energy target of 300 GW (gigawatt) for 2030 by around 86 GW, a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research. In this context, this article analyzes the present scenario of the Solar energy sector in India.

WHAT DOES THE REPORT SAY?

• As of April, only about 50% of the 100GW target, consisting of 60GW of utility-scale and 40GW of rooftop solar capacity, has been met.
• Nearly 19 GW of solar capacity is expected to be added in 2022 — 15.8GW from utility-scale and 3.5GW from rooftop solar. Even accounting for this capacity would mean about 27% of India’s 100GW solar target would remain unmet.
• A 25GW shortfall in the 40GW rooftop solar target is expected compared to 1.8GW in the utility-scale solar target by December 2022. Thus, it is in rooftop solar that the challenges of India’s solar-adoption policy stick out.

REASONS FOR MISSING INDIA’S SOLAR ENERGY TARGET

• In its early years, India’s rooftop solar market struggled to grow, held back by lack of consumer awareness, inconsistent policy frameworks of the Centre/ State governments, and financing. Recently, however, there has been a sharp rise in rooftop solar installations thanks to falling technology costs, increasing grid tariffs, rising consumer awareness, and the growing need for cutting energy costs.
• Other Factors impeding rooftop-solar installation include:
• Pandemic-induced supply chain disruption to policy restrictions.
• Limits to net-metering (or paying users who give back surplus electricity to the grid). Regulatory roadblocks.
• Taxes on imported cells and modules, unsigned power supply agreements (PSAs) and banking restrictions; financing issues plus delays in or rejection of open access approval grants; and the unpredictability of future open access charges.

OVERVIEW OF INDIA’S RENEWABLE ENERGY SECTOR

• At COP26 in Glasgow, our prime minister announced 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil fuel capacity and 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2030, coupled with a net-zero target by 2070.
• Presently, India has installed 152.90 GW of renewable energy capacity projects (including large hydro) until February. It includes 50.78 GW from solar power, 40.13 GW from wind power, 10.63 GW from Bio-power, 4.84 GW from small hydropower, and 46.52 GW from large hydropower.

IMPORTANCE OF SOLAR ENERGY FOR INDIA

• India’s share of global energy demand is predicted to double to 11% in 2040, making it imperative to enhance energy security and self-sufficiency in power generation without increasing environmental costs.
• This increase in power demand is likely to increase India’s reliance on coal, oil, and natural gas as a source of energy. However, additional imports of oil and increased domestic production of coal will fall short of energy demand and entail economic and environmental costs.
• These are likely to hit harder than anticipated in an economy ravaged by COVID-19. Expansion of solar power units and increased reliance on solar power allows India to enhance energy security in the face of rising demand.
• India is dealing with an aggressive air pollution problem. In 2020, Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 328, indicating severe pollution. Solar production does not cause any toxic emissions and can help mitigate the pollution caused by fossil fuel usage.
• India is likely to face increasing water security issues and thus must shift to energy sources that don’t rely extensively on water. The groundwater levels in India declined by 61% between 2007 and 2017, with the majority of this water being used for irrigation. This is a major red flag for coal production which relies heavily on water for steam production and cooling. Solar power is neither dependent on groundwater supplies nor does it strain them.

WHAT IS INDIA’S SOLAR POLICY?

SOLAR ROOFTOP SCHEME: Under the rooftop scheme executed by SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India), 200 MW of projects has been allocated. SECI launched a tender that is the largest global one offering a 30% subsidy to the residential sector, private not-for-profit educational organizations, social sector, and the health institutions.

SOLAR PARK SCHEME: Parks to facilitate the creation of infrastructure required to set up new solar power projects in terms of land allocation, transmission, access to roads, availability of water, etc. MNRE has come up with a scheme to set up a number of solar parks across several states, each with a capacity of almost 500 MW. The Scheme proposes to offer financial support by the Government of India to establish solar

SOLAR ENERGY SUBSIDY SCHEME: Under this Scheme, financial assistance and capital subsidy will be provided to the applicant to the extent of 50 percent, 75 percent, and 90 percent of the basis of the basic cost of the solar energy plant. The Government Yojana explains that a person is eligible for a subsidy if he has solar panels installed on the rooftop. The subsidy is decided as per the capacity of the solar power plant.

PRADHAN MANTRI- KISAN URJA SURAKSHA EVAM UTTHAAN MAHABHIYAN: It Aims to provide financial and water security to farmers through harnessing solar energy capacities of 25,750 MW by 2022. Solarisation of water pumps is a step in distributed power provided at the consumer’s doorstep.

THE JAWAHARLAL NEHRU NATIONAL SOLAR MISSION (JNNSM): The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), also known as the National Solar Mission (NSM), which commenced in January 2010, marked the government’s first focus on promoting and developing solar power in India.

GROWTH OF THE SOLAR SECTOR: Since 2011, India’s solar sector has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 59% from 0.5GW in 2011 to 55GW in 2021.

RANKING OF INDIA: India currently ranks fifth after China, the U.S., Japan, and Germany in terms of installed solar power capacity.

PRESENT STATUS: As of December 2021, India’s cumulative solar installed capacity is 55GW, which is roughly half the renewable energy (RE) capacity (excluding large hydropower) and 14% of India’s overall power generation capacity. Within the 55GW, grid-connected utility-scale projects contribute 77% and the rest comes from the grid-connected rooftop and off-grid projects.

What should be done to achieve the targets?

• The need for focused, collaborative, and goals-driven R&D to help India attain technology leadership.
• The need for better financing infrastructure, models, and arrangements to spur the PV industry and consumption of PV products.
• Training and development of human resources to drive industry growth and PV adoption.
• With solar panels and solar systems getting more efficient vs their earlier generation, customers are wanting to invest in a technology that is getting them better output per square meter of the space they have.
• So there is a constant need to invest in research & development of a more efficient solar ecosystem involving energy storage systems. Like sharks, bifacial panels generate electricity from both the front and back of the solar panel.
• As India is making strides to fulfill its solar dream, Loom Solar and its smart methodologies shall continue to provide the Indian solar industry with much-needed assistance for ‘Mission 2030’.

SCOPE OF INDIA’S SOLAR SECTOR

• The generation of solar energy has tremendous scope in India. India being a tropical country, receives solar radiation throughout the year. With 3,000 hours of sunshine, this is equal to more than 5,000 trillion kWh of solar radiation per square meter.
• India has vast solar potential; it is a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs to start a solar business in India. With the growing economy, India’s power consumption is going to rise, so the solar energy business in India is the ideal way to manage the balance between economic growth and sustainable development.
• The government is constantly pushing and supporting the solar business in India through various programs and initiatives by enabling an increase in solar power at a subsidized cost.

THE CONCLUSION: Boosting solar capacity post-pandemic in a struggling economy will pose a whole new challenge. It will require innovative financing techniques and policies to bolster domestic production in the face of increasing environmental concerns.

Questions:

1. Recently, as per a report, India has missed its solar target. Find out the causes and also suggest the measures for the same.
2. It is imperative for India to achieve its solar energy target in the fight against climate change. Elaborate.

THE CONTEXT: The Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change has launched the ‘Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India’ under which 50 of these big cats will be introduced in the next five years. A delegation from India visited Namibia in February 2022 to discuss the translocation logistics with the Namibia Government. Namibia would be giving 3 cheetahs for translocation to India and may become the first nation from where cheetahs would be relocated to Kuno wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. This article analyses the different aspects related to the issue of the reintroduction of cheetahs in India.

KEY DETAILS ABOUT CHEETAHS

The cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, is one of the oldest of the big cat species. It is also the world’s fastest land mammal and is capable of running at speeds of 80 to 128 km/h. They are considered native to Africa and central Iran. The cheetah occurs in a variety of habitats such as the Savannah grasslands in the Serengeti (Kenya-Tanzania, Africa), arid mountain ranges in the Sahara, and hilly desert terrain in Iran. The cheetah is threatened by several factors such as habitat loss, conflict with humans, poaching, and high susceptibility to diseases. In 2016, the global African Cheetah population was estimated at around 7,100 individuals in the wild; it is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

Historically ranging throughout most of Sub-Saharan Africa and extending eastward into the Middle East and to central India, the cheetah is now distributed mainly in small, fragmented populations in central Iran and southern, eastern, and north-western Africa. The Asiatic cheetah is classified as a critically endangered species by the IUCN Red List and is believed to survive only in Iran. It is smaller and paler than an African cheetah and looks more like a cat with a smaller head and long neck.

CHEETAHS IN INDIA AND HOW DID THEY BECOME EXTINCT?

CHEETAHS IN INDIA

• India has a long history of cheetahs. The name ‘cheetah’ comes from the Sanskrit word chitraka which means ‘spotted’.
• The earliest historical references to cheetahs are in classical Greek records of India from the geographer Strabo, about 200 BCE.
• Coming down to the Mughal Period, the cheetahs were used extensively for hunting. Mughal Emperor Akbar had 1,000 cheetahs in his menagerie. People in Central India, particularly Gwalior State and Jaipur State, used to hunt cheetahs. The last three cheetahs living in the country were killed in 1947 by the ruler of the erstwhile Koriya state in present-day Chhattisgarh. The species was officially declared extinct in India in 1952.

HOW DID THE CHEETAH BECOME EXTINCT IN INDIA?

• The animal is extremely easy to tame, compared to other non-domesticated predators, and was used to hunt prey, a sport called ‘coursing’. The animal was a popular part of many royal courts throughout India and other parts of Asia where it was found.
• But another trait of the cheetah was that it was impossible to breed in captivity. There was only one recorded successful attempt at breeding a cheetah in captivity until the 20th century, an event recorded by Emperor Jahangir in 1613 in the book Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri.
• As the Cheetah number dwindled due to the high number of Cheetahs being taken from the wild, the animal was also then finally brought to extinction with the advent of the widespread hunting brought to India during the time of the British Raj.
• While the government has officially stated that the animal was driven extinct from desertification, experts suggest that the animal had plenty of habitat and prey population to survive if it weren’t hunted to extinction.

THE ACTION PLAN FOR CHEETAH REINTRODUCTION IN INDIA

• Under the action plan, the Government of India would bring 50 Cheetahs over the next five years to form a founding population of the species. Further, former cheetah-range states, i.e. Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh would be duly analyzed by the experts.
• As part of the plan, India will be translocating around 12-14 cheetahs from South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana to Kuno Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Kuno National Park has been chosen because of its suitable habitat and adequate prey base. KNP is 748 sq. km. in area, devoid of human settlements, and is estimated to have a capacity to sustain 21 cheetahs.
• Each of these cheetahs would also be fitted with Satellite/GSM-GPS-VHF radio collars before their release in the wild to enable monitoring remotely. This could be the world’s first intercontinental cheetah translocation project.

RELEVANCE CHEETAH REINTRODUCTION

SUITABLE LIVING CONDITIONS:

• The cheetah used to live and thrive in the Indian Subcontinent for centuries, hence their reintroduction is a realistic step.
• Further, the proposed location of Kuno is woodland and cheetahs have been known to survive in woodland.
• Cheetahs are quite good at navigating the whistling thorn and acacia scrublands in places like the Maasai Mara game reserve in Kenya (contiguous to Serengeti National Park in Tanzania).
• India now is considering restoring its lost natural heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons. The conservation of the cheetah will revive grasslands and their biomes and habitat, much like Project Tiger has done for forests and all the species that have seen their numbers go up.

SUFFICIENT PREY:

• The Kuno national park has a good prey base for cheetahs, comprising the four-horned antelope, chinkara, nilgai, wild pig, spotted deer, and sambar.

ECOSYSTEM STABILITY:

• In saving cheetahs, one would have to save not only its prey-base comprising certain threatened species, but also other endangered species of the grasslands and open forest ecosystems.

LESS PROBABILITY OF MAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT:

• It is also observed that among large carnivores, conflict with human interests is lowest for Cheetahs. They are not a threat to humans and do not easily attack large livestock.

ECONOMIC RELEVANCE:

• The reintroduction of a species like the Cheetah would attract a significant amount of tourism to the cheetah range states. This would give a boost to other sectors like transportation, hotels, etc., and also generate additional jobs.

CHALLENGES WITH THE REINTRODUCTION PROGRAMME

GENETIC DIFFERENCES:

• Many experts have expressed concerns over the reintroduction of African Cheetahs instead of Asiactic cheetahs. They believe that Asiactic cheetahs would have been a more suitable choice considering the historical survival of species in the region and their ability to quickly acclimatize.

DISEASE TRANSMISSION TO OTHER SPECIES:

• There are very few diseases unique and specific to predators. However, the transmission of these to the endemic tiger population is a cause for concern.

INTERSPECIES COMPETITION AND SCIENTIFIC CONUNDRUMS:

• The Kuno National Park is already home to around 30 leopards. Tigers from the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, 140 km away from Kuno, are also believed to migrate to the park. The proximity of three predators in the same ecosystem may reduce the survival rates of cheetahs.
• There is no science available currently to suggest that cheetahs, lions, tigers, and leopards can coexist comfortably in the same habitat. It has never occurred anywhere else before, so there is no real-life experience to draw upon.

MAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT:

• More aggressive predators such as tigers and leopards will compete with the cheetahs in the park. They may drive cheetahs to the outskirts of the park, where they could come into conflict with humans.

THE WAY FORWARD

• The wildlife authorities should be prepared for some attrition arising out of natural interactions., around 10% of cheetahs in Savannah in Africa are killed by lions. A similar ratio may be killed by Tigers in Kuno. The officials must expect some deaths and tolerate the negative and damaging interactions with cheetahs, keeping in mind the long-term goal of creating a natural interactive landscape and habitat.
• A detailed analysis of animals’ lineage and condition should be checked in the host country. This would ensure that they are not from an excessively inbred stock and are in the ideal age group, to conform to the needs of a founding population.
• The strategy of cold release should be duly followed as suggested by experts. Under this, the cheetahs would be kept in an enclosure called a boma and prey will be released into this enclosure for cheetahs to catch.
• Active negotiations should be done with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), as its permission is necessary for initiating translocation.
• A team of experts from various fields is required for each of the project sites along with the training of the personnel both within India and abroad for the successful outcomes of the reintroduction project.

THE CONCLUSION: A careful analysis of the pros and cons shows that cheetah reintroduction is feasible in India considering the species used to exist in the region for centuries. However, the associated concerns should be duly addressed to ensure their long-term survivability. The Cheetah habitat in India historically is from Jammu to Tamil Nadu, very widespread and they were found in any habitat dry forests, grasslands, scrub forests, etc. and it is expected that they will survive quite happily.

Mains practice question:

1. “Reintroductions of large carnivores have increasingly been recognised as a strategy to conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions.” Elaborate on the context of cheetah reintroduction in India.

ADD TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE

ABOUT KUNO NATIONAL PARK:

• The topography of Madhya Pradesh in Central India is fascinating. Perhaps, it is the only Indian state with such a diversity of habitats—the dense forests on the Satpura foothills, the open dry grasslands, and the sparse, thorny forests found across the state and the wetlands of River Chambal.
• Located in the northern district of Sheopur, Kuno National Park predominantly consists of grasslands and sparse forests that are home to an abundance of mammals, reptiles, birds, and butterflies. Although there has been a lot written about the tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh, the beautiful Kuno National Park (KNP) has emerged in general discourse because of Cheetah’s reintroduction.
• Kuno National Park has a rich floral diversity with more than 129 species of trees. These tropical dry deciduous forests mainly consist of Anogeissus pendula (Kardhai), Senegalia catechu (Khair) Boswellia serrata (Salai), and associated flora.
• Kuno’s forests are arguably the finest remnants of the Central Indian Highlands; they were once the hunting grounds of the Gwalior maharajas.
• They are inhabited by carnivores such as the Indian Leopard, Indian Wolf, Golden Jackal, Sloth Bear, Indian Fox, and Striped Hyena. The herbivores found here are Spotted Deer, Sambhar, Nilgai, Chousingha, and Blackbuck. The high density of ungulates in Kuno can be attributed to the abundance of short grass species to feed on and the tall grass which provides shelter to the fawns.

Pre 2017 Question:

1. Recently there was a proposal to translocate some of the lions from their natural habitat in Gujarat to which one of the following sites?

a) Corbett National Park.

b) Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary.

c) Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary.

d) Sariska National Park.

Answer: B

HISTORIC AND PRESENT CHEETAH RANGE OF THE WORLD

THE CONTEXT:  In April 2022, the SC has given a slew of directions in the Mullaperiyar dam issue. The dam is at the center of a decades-old dispute: for Kerala, where it is situated, the dam presents a threat to lakhs living downstream; and for Tamil Nadu, which controls the dam, the water it provides is the lifeline of people in five districts. This article examines the controversy related to the dam in the light of the SC verdict.

ALL YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT MULLAPERIYAR DAM

The dam sits on the upper portions of the Periyar River, which originates in Tamil Nadu and goes into Kerala. Within the Periyar Tiger Reserve, the reservoir is located. The water diverted from the reservoir is used to generate electricity in Tamil Nadu’s lower Periyar region before flowing into the Suruliyar, a tributary of the Vaigai river, and then irrigating roughly 2.08 lakh hectares in Theni and four other districts farther afield.

WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY?

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

• The British administration regarded the Periyar waters useless to Travancore; thus the Maharaja of Travancore signed the ‘Periyar Lease Deed’ with the British government in 1886.
• It intended to redirect the water to Tamil Nadu’s parched districts. After 20 years of defiance, the Maharaja signed the deal.
• The dam was completed in 1895. In 1959, the Madras government began generating hydel power. The capacity was later raised to 140 MW.

CONCERNS FOR SAFETY:

• Concerns about the dam’s safety stretch back to the early 1960s when the media stated that it was dangerous.
• In 1961, Kerala brought the issue to the Central Water Commission’s attention. In 1964, the water level was dropped for the first time, from 155 feet to 152 feet, following a joint examination by Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• In the years that followed, Tamil Nadu witnessed public agitations demanding that the level be increased; Kerala opposed the demand.

STAND OF KERALA:

• Kerala has been strongly advocating the need to decommission the “deteriorated” structure and build a new one.
• It cited climate change-induced erratic and heavy rainfalls that could further damage the structure.
• Political leaders of Kerala argue that the dam is a ticking time bomb that can explode at any moment, causing the deaths of thousands in the state.
• It maintains that the only solution is razing down the existing weak structure and constructing a new dam.

STAND OF TAMIL NADU:

• Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu considers it a safe and well-maintained dam and is making persistent efforts to raise the water storage level in it to 152 feet through interventions in Madras high court, Supreme Court, Central Water Commission, and other top bodies.
• Tamil Nadu says water from the dam is vital to the arid villages and towns of the southern districts to address their drinking water and irrigation concerns.

BATTLE IN COURTS:

• Over the years, petitions have been filed in the high courts of both states. These were subsequently transferred to the Supreme Court. In 2000, the Centre appointed an expert committee to look into safety and suggest storage levels. (Read Ahead).

A TIMELINE OF THE COURT BATTLE OVER MULLAPERIYAR DAM

2006:

• The Supreme Court allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the water level to 142 ft.
• It said after completing strengthening work, the level could be restored to 152 ft if an expert committee examined and recommended it.
• In March 2006, the Kerala Assembly amended the Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation Act, 2003, bringing Mullaperiyar into the ‘Endangered Dams’ schedule and restricting its storage at 136 ft.
• Since then, the issue has shifted to the safety of the dam.

2007:

• In 2007, the Kerala Cabinet permitted preliminary work on a new dam. Tamil Nadu approached the Supreme Court against the move.

2008:

• In 2008, a flood routing study by IIT Delhi found the dam was unsafe, and in next year, IIT Roorkee reported the dam was in an earthquake-prone area and would not survive a major quake.

2010:

• In 2010, the Supreme Court formed an empowered committee to look into the dam’s safety. As per the said order, the terms of reference of the Empowered  Committee were to:
• Hear parties to the suit on all issues that will be raised before them, without being limited to the issues that have been raised before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, and furnish a report, as far as possible, within six months from their constitution.
• The Committee shall frame its own procedure and issue appropriate directions as to the hearings as well as the venue of its sittings.
• The Committee is free to receive such further evidence as it considers appropriate.
• Legal and constitutional issues, including the validity of the Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2006 would be considered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.

2011:

• In November 2011, Kerala sought the Centre’s intervention to bring down water levels to 120 ft after the area witnessed minor tremors.

2014:

• In 2014, the Supreme Court order allowed Tamil Nadu to fix the water level at 142 ft.

2018:

• The Supreme Court directed Union Govt. to form a Sub-Committee under the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to monitor the measures for ensuring a high level of preparedness to face any disaster in relation to Mullaperiyar Dam.

2021:

• The SC directed Supervisory Committee on Mullaperiyar Dam to address three core issues i.e., the instrumentation plan of the dam, the rule curve & the gate operation schedule/reservoir operation plan.

2022:

• On April 8, the Supreme Court reconstituted the Mullaperiyar dam’s supervisory Committee, including one technical expert each from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• It gave the panel functions and powers comparable to those of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA), a body established under the Dam Safety Act of 2021.

THE SC ORDER IN A NUTSHELL

The court has enabled the supervisory Committee to deliberate on any pending concerns linked to the dam’s safety and undertake a new review of its safety and give it NDSA powers and functions. For any failure, “due to action” will be taken against the individuals involved, not only for violating the court’s orders, but also under the Act, which stipulates a year in prison or a fine, or both, for refusing to comply with the commands of entities established under the law. The two states are anticipated to nominate one representative each to the supervisory Committee and one nominee each, within two weeks, as ordered by the Supreme Court in its most recent ruling.

HOW REAL IS THE ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT?

UNITED NATIONS REPORT: 

• A report prepared by the United Nations University-Institute for Water, Environment and Health, cited “significant structural flaws” in the dam and said it “may be at risk of failure”.
• “Leaks and leaching are also concerning, as the methods and materials used during construction are considered outdated, compared to the current building standards, it said

IIT ROORKEE STUDY:

• Commissioned by the Kerala Government in the latter part of the 2000s, a study by IIT-Roorkee raised questions about the survival of the dam, located in seismic zone-3, in the event of an earthquake of a fairly high magnitude.

TREMORS AND FLOODS:

• Massive landslides had devastated central Kerala’s hilly regions, and weather prediction was ominous.
• A series of tremors felt in the area in 2011 caused alarm. Subsequently, the floods of 2018 and the erratic nature of annual monsoons ever since brought the focus back on the 126-year-old dam.

THE CENTRAL WATER COMMISSION’S VIEW:

• The Central Water Commission (CWC) informed the Supreme Court that a new review of the safety of Mullaperiyar is due.
• In a status report before the apex court, CWC said that no review on safety was taken place for the last 12 years.
• However, the same report quotes Empowered Committee constituted by the Supreme Court in 2010 that noted that Mullaperiyar was found to be safe in all respects, hydrologically, structurally, and seismically.

DO YOU KNOW?

A rule curve, also known as a rule level, indicates how much storage or empty space should be kept in a reservoir at different times of the year. It determines how a reservoir’s storage levels fluctuate. The rule curve is used to determine when a dam’s gates will open. It’s a part of a dam’s “core safety” mechanism. The TN government frequently blames Kerala for delaying the rule curve’s finalization.

THE WAY FORWARD:

DECENTRALISED STORAGE FACILITY:

• The best solution is to construct a few smaller storage structures in the five districts of Tamil Nadu and divert the excess water from the dam to the storage.
• A decentralised storage facility can avert the situation of keeping vast amounts of water in the 19th-century lime concrete structure.

NEW DAM IS NOT A FEASIBLE IDEA:

• Constructing a new dam in the same seismic zone is dangerous. Decommissioning and construction activities would happen in a seismic zone that comes within a tiger reserve, known for rich biodiversity.
• Given the experiences from different parts of the world, dam construction can heighten earthquake, landslide, and rockfall threats.
• The huge human presence required for construction activities will kill the highly crucial Periyar Tiger Reserve surrounding Mullaperiyar.

CREATE DAM DEFORMATION DATABASE:

• At present, there is very little dam deformation data in the case of Mullaperiyar.
• The time requires the creation of an independent group of experts jointly by the two states to check existing technical reports and collect and analyse dam deformation data to decide on the dam’s future stability prospects.

WORK OF SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:

• The latest directions of the SC that empowered the Supervisory Committee to need to be implemented in letter and spirit, Both the states should provide all support for its work.

THE CONCLUSION: Political leadership of both the states needs to get their acts together for a viable solution to the dam issue. Science, data, and evidence need to drive the discourse that new technologies can speed up decision-making. The construction of a new dam carries risk. Hence, a decentralized approach to water management at the Tamil Nadu level and monitoring of the dam from the safety and structural aspects need to be undertaken.

Questions:

1. What is the Mullaperiyar dam controversy? How far do you think constructing a new dam will resolve it?
2. “ Without political solutions, judicial interventions fail” Comment in the light of the Mullaperiyar dam issue between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.